Patients held hostage at DMCH

TUESDAY'S violence at the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) over a petty conflict centered around use of a hospital lift has not only caused immense suffering to outdoor patients who were cruelly denied service but also left the citizens shell-shocked. One fails to understand why a mere tiff between some interns and a patient's attendants should trigger a full-scale clannish warfare between doctors and DU students resulting in closure of the hospital for about five hours. Why must a hospital be used as a place for such turf wars?
The DMCH and DU authorities, Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) leaders and police together have reportedly decided to probe the incident so that those involved in the attack on the hospital could be found out and held to account. The DU authority, too, has formed a body to look into the university students' involvement in the incident.  Routine steps as these are, one wonders how substantive their outcome would be. It is also important to find out those who denied treatment to critical patients for hours even at the emergency and casualty departments. One cannot be oblivious of the fact that a public hospital like DMCH is dedicated to providing treatment to people who cannot afford the costs of a private hospital. No one has the right to stop its service even for a minute just to settle a score with someone else.
We hope authorities would go to the heart of the matter so that any further repetition of such untoward incident can be averted.