The protesting doctors of the hospitals called off their countrywide ‘complete shutdown’ on Tuesday, bringing relief to patients.
Medical services will fully resume in all the hospitals across the country tomorrow, sayid Md Abdul Ahad, the resident surgeon of the Department of Neurosurgery at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
He made this announcement at a press conference on Tuesday.
Abdul Ahad said, “Our demands have been met as the hospital administration has ensured the safety of doctors and arrested the culprits. As a result, the doctors’ strike has been withdrawn, and patients will get full servicesat the hospital from tomorrow.”
The doctors started work stoppage on Sunday following the incident of vandalism and assaults on medical staff in the emergency department of the DMCH.
Earlier on Tuesday, outdoor and indoor services at DMCH resumed on a limited scale after a two-day suspension.
Doctors began returning to their workplace to provide outdoor services at the hospital from 10:00am and the services continued until 1:00pm on Tuesday.
The doctors staged a two-hour sit-in from 8:00 am on Tuesday demanding the arrest of those involved in the attacks, the drafting of a law for protection of doctors, and the recruitment of a health police force.
Emergency department services resumed earlier on Sunday night,
According to hospital sources, services have now resumed in both the emergency and outdoor departments, and hospital operations are nearly back to normal.
Army personnel, members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and police personnel were seen on high alert at the DMCH.
The outdoor services had been closed for the last two days. Despite the resumption, there was no significant rush of patients and the service flow remained normal. There were fewer patients than usual, possibly because many were unaware of the resumption of the service on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, patients expressed relief at the reopening of outpatient services, though they called for a full-scale resumption of all services soon.
Abdur Rahman, who came to see a doctor, said, “I had to return home the previous day because services were suspended. I learned through a relative that services had resumed today, so I came early in the morning.”
He added that while the resumption of services eased his inconvenience, he hopes for a complete restoration of all services to meet everyone’s needs.
