Doctors' strike halts Ctg hospital

FE Team | Published: July 18, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

CHITTAGONG, July 17: Medical officers at Ma O Shishu General Hospital in Chittagong called a strike Tuesday, demanding regularisation and a reversal of the decision that would lead to some doctors losing their jobs, reports bdnews24.com.
Treatment at the hospital has almost come to a halt since 50 medical officers failed to appear for work Tuesday morning.
Hundreds of patients from Chittagong and its surrounding districts have had their treatment disrupted following the work stoppage.
Zafrul Hannan, associate professor, told the news agency; "As the medical officers have not attended work from Tuesday morning all medical care, except for emergency treatment, has been suspended."
"Many scheduled operations have been cancelled. The lack of manpower means only a limited number of emergency operations are being carried out."
"A meeting of the Hospital Executive Committee could not solve the problem, therefore, an emergency meeting has been called for Wednesday (today)," he said.
Hannan said that there are currently around 250 patients in the hospital.
According to Enamul Huq Chowdhury, one of the doctors taking part in the strike, their longstanding demands were to have been settled in June this year when they signed an agreement with the hospital authorities.
This agreement was to have regularised the jobs of 50 medical officers. However, the president of the Hospital Management Committee later cancelled the agreement.
In addition, the president of the hospital committee ordered the termination of all medical officers by the first week of July.
A July 15 deadline given by medical officers for a final acceptance of the earlier agreement has expired.
Chowdhury said, "We have stopped working in order to have our jobs regularised after completing two years of internship. We are also demanding a provision for education leave and a restructuring of the Hospital Executive Committee to include hospital officials and employees."