The suffering of thousands of patients and their families intensified as a nationwide doctors’ strike paralyzed health services at both public and private hospitals.
The strike, triggered by a series of attacks on medical personnel, left hospitals struggling to provide even basic care. Critical patients were left unattended, emergency departments were locked, and outpatient services were suspended.
Later in the day, doctors agreed to partially suspend their "complete shutdown" for 24 hours after the Health and Family Welfare Adviser assured them that those responsible for the attacks would be arrested, and their other demands addressed.
Health Adviser Nurjhan Begum announced the decision in the evening after a meeting with doctors, interns, nurses, and medical staff at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Following the meeting, DMCH Director Brigadier General Md. Asaduzzaman announced that the doctors had decided to call off their strike.
"Doctors will return to work immediately, starting with emergency services. Other departments will follow," he stated.
Medical services at DMCH resumed around 8:30 pm under the supervision of Army and BGB personnel. However, by 9:30 pm, services in most departments, except the ICU and HDU, had not yet fully resumed, according to sources.
Abdul Ahad, a resident physician in the neurosurgery department at DMCH, noted that while the strike had been suspended, only the emergency department would initially resume operations.
The indefinite strike, announced earlier in the day by physicians at all public and private hospitals, had crippled the country's entire healthcare system following several attacks on medical staff.
As a result, thousands of patients and their families, seeking urgent medical attention, were left in distress as doctors and interns locked down emergency and other departments.
On Sunday morning, Abdul Ahad had announced the strike, demanding increased security and the prosecution of those responsible for the attacks.
The strike began when all 200 intern physicians at DMCH refused to attend their duties, with other physicians joining in solidarity.
They subsequently presented several demands, including the immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of those involved in the attacks on doctors, the appointment of armed law enforcement officers to protect doctors in all hospitals nationwide within 24 hours, the appointment of a health police force under the Directorate General of Health Services within a week, and the reform and implementation of the health protection law.
The strike was prompted by several incidents of attacks at DMCH on Saturday. In the first incident, a physician was assaulted over alleged negligence in the treatment of Ahsanul Haque Dipto, a student of the Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT), who later succumbed to his injuries.
BDST: 1223 HRS, SEPT 02, 2024
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