Employees of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) yesterday demonstrated on its premises against the decision to upgrade the medical college to a university.
They held a protest rally, brought out procession and staged a token strike from 11am to 1pm. The activities were organised by CMCH Karmakarta-Karmachari Oikya Parishad.
Romena Akhter, president of the organisation, addressed the protest rally while Ratan Ali Mia, member secretary; Rukhma Chowdhury, joint secretary; and Ratan Kumar Nath, general secretary of Diploma Nurse Association, spoke among others.
Calling the decision to upgrade to a university self-destructive, Romena said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina might have been influenced by bureaucrats to take such a decision.
“If CMCH is upgraded to a university, it will be run by an autonomous body. This could mean that nearly five crore people, from Teknaf to Comilla, who depend on the hospital for low-cost treatment, will be deprived of that facility as numerous fees will be hiked up,” protesters said.
They said CMCH would suffer the same fate as Dhaka’s PG Hospital if an autonomous body was allowed to run it.
“We also want a medical university but it has to be established elsewhere,” they observed.
The demonstrators said they would continue their protest, no matter what stands in their way, till their demands were met.
