Hundreds of patients were left without treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital when more than 1,000 doctors stopped work to protest the violent attack on honorary physician Mominul Islam, on Saturday night.
There is no justification for a strike which hurts innocent patients, who have no connection to, or influence over the attackers.
Striking accomplishes nothing to help law enforcement authorities catch the people responsible. No useful purpose is served by making patients suffer.
It is one thing to hold a demonstration in support of the victim of a heinous attack and to demand the arrest of perpetrators. For honorary doctors to show solidarity with colleagues is a natural reaction.
However, it is unacceptable for doctors to disrupt vital healthcare services and leave patients unattended. It not only does nothing to help the victim of the attack, but actively harms patients.
Abandoning patients is a breach of basic medical ethics and wholly counter-productive as it brings the medical profession, on which everyone relies, into disrepute.
While we do not agree with the Bangladesh Medical Association’s associated call for symbolic hour long strikes, at least that move shows a bit more concern for the rights of the public and the responsibilities of doctors.
Regrettably, the ill considered strike action at DCMH diverts attention away genuine issues of concern. Public hospitals do need to become far better managed and doctors rights to good working conditions deserve to be respected. However, any strike, let alone one about a crime which took place outside a hospital, risks public sympathy and is unjustified.
