Bangladesh has a comprehensive and updated labour law. The law extensively defines who are workers and their rights, obligations and privileges. This piece of legislation also gives the workers the right to form trade unions and resort to strikes, if necessary to realise the lawful demands. But prior to the enforcement of strikes, the trade unions are required to fulfil certain conditions. Any deviation from the rules set in the labour law might prompt the owners of establishment/s concerned to go for legal action, claiming that the strike is illegal.
But Bangladesh is a country where everyone doing job with any establishment, apparently, considers himself/ herself as a worker and feels that he or she has the right to take recourse to abstention from work. However, no individual usually resorts to strike. It is enforced by a group of people under the banner of some organisations, notwithstanding the fact the nature of their job and conditions of services do not have any relevance to the provisions of the labour law.
The reason for highlighting the aforementioned issues is linked to the ongoing agitation by the doctors of the Bangladesh Institute of Research & Rehabilitation for Diabetes, Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM) over the alleged physical assault of two BIRDEM doctors by the relatives over the death of a patient. The relatives have accused the doctors in question of maltreatment and neglect and denied their involvement in any violence within the hospital premises.
The strike by doctors caused immense sufferings to thousands of indoor and outdoor patients. Many patients had to leave the hospital, the largest one treating the diabetic patients coming from across the country, because of the sudden strike by doctors. The BIRDEM doctors called off their strike following action against one police official, who was allegedly involved in the manhandling of the two doctors. The police headquarters took action against the police official when the health minister had intervened.
Strike by doctors protesting 'assault' or 'vandalism' on the part of relatives of deceased patients on the ground of 'deliberate neglect' or 'maltreatment' is nothing new. In the recent times, the acts of violence over alleged maltreatment and neglect in government as well private health facilities have gone up. However, usually doctors serving in the government hospitals are found to be prompt in resorting to work abstention to protest against the act of violence by 'outsiders'.
But the issue deserves serious attention of all concerned, including the government. The moot question is: Should doctors resort to strike, leaving the patients, who are entirely dependent on their care and service, unattended? Does their professional ethics or the Hippocratic Oath permit them to do so? Â
Then again how would doctor protest if somebody or a group of people treat them unfairly or assault them physically or do not give them their due, in terms of perks and privileges?
In any modern, developed and civilised society, strike by doctors is a rare event since the health professionals put the welfare of patients above everything. Any private hospital in the western world would never refuse to provide emergency treatment to a critical patient for non-payment of fees and charges. It would treat the patient first and later explore how best it could collect such charges from other sources, including philanthropic organisations.
A contrasting situation prevails in private hospitals in Bangladesh. No hospital would attend even a critically ill patient at the emergency without having all the charges or part of the same deposited with the cash section. What is lacking in most hospitals here is the urge to offer the best care to a patient. A few good words and an affectionate approach from the attending doctors or nurses mean a lot to a patient in any hospital, private and public. But there exists a serious scarcity of the same in Bangladesh health facilities.
Without proper and expert investigation it is hard to find out the authenticity of allegations made by patients' relatives about maltreatment and neglect. But such investigations are hardly done. In major incidents, probe committees are constituted, usually with doctors of the organisations involved in the incidents. The reports produced by such committees do not have any credibility and are rejected by the patients' families and relatives.
The incumbent health minister has recently spoken about the government's plan to empower the Bangladesh Dental and Medical Council (BMDC) with the authority of scrapping the registration of physicians if found involved in maltreatment and negligent in carrying out his/her duties and responsibilities. It would be a good move. But the minister might face resistance while carrying on with the move to amend the BMDC act.
The government should devise some mechanism so that the doctors whose services are, in fact, more than essential are not required to resort to strike. For any genuine grievance they should first make use of that mechanism prior to taking harsh action such as strike to press home their demand/s.
zahidmar10@gmail.com
Should doctors resort to strike?
Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: April 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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