Patients who came to get treated were left to go through extreme suffering as the interns protested, suspending all services and duties for four hours Mehedi Hasan/Dhaka Tribune
Fresh programmes will be announced after seven days if the authorities concerned fail to meet their demand, he added. He said their demands include not allowing relatives of any patient without an entry pass, confirming security for the on-duty doctors and investigation and trial into the recent attack on doctors. DMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin said police are responsible for ensuring punishment to the culprits. The DMCH management will put all its efforts to fulfil the demands of doctors, he added.
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Ward Master of the DMCH Outdoor Department Riaz Uddin told the Dhaka Tribune that a large number of patients had suffered during the time of human chain. He said: “We opened the outdoor treatment around 9am and it was supposed to continue till 2pm. The interns forced us to stop selling tickets from the counters for outdoor patients. “We could not sell a single ticket.” Abdur Rashid, a resident of Jatrabari area, told the Dhaka Tribune that he took his six-year-old nephew to the hospital but after coming to the hospital he found outdoor services closed. “We, the poor people, get better services at minimum cost here and if the doctors stop providing us with the services without any prior announcement frequently, then where else could we go?” he added. Another patient, Rashida Begum of Azimpur, said she came to the hospital with severe pain in her right leg but found the outdoor services closed. “They [the doctors] could not even say when they will start providing service here,” she added. “They might have some demands, but in a place like hospital how could they just stop providing service leading patients to sufferings?” she asked. Numbers of patients and their carer present there also made the same allegation.