Interns at Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital continued indefinite strike for the second day on Thursday, protesting at assault on intern doctors by attendants over the death of a female patient for alleged negligence in treatment.
The interns also suspended the outdoor services at the hospital on Thursday and forced senior doctors to abstain from indoor and outdoor duties, leaving the patients to suffer immensely.
SBMCH hospital sources said a total of 1,289 patients got admission to the 500-bed hospital Thursday morning and more than one hundred patients were forced to leave the hospital as services and facilities at the hospital remained suspended because of the strike.
The interns on the second day held demonstrations by burning tyres and newspapers for publishing reports on the sufferings of patients because of the strike.
Barisal Reporters Unity in a statement condemned the burning of newspapers by the intern doctors said it was against freedom of press.
The statement said the strike violated the health rights of the people and citizen charter.
Barisal city mayor and city Awami League convener Shawkat Hossain Hiron visited the hospital Thursday morning and requested the interns to withdraw the strike considering the sufferings of the patients.
But the interns vowed to continue the strike.
‘We will continue the strike as safety and security of the doctors on duty was not assured,’ said Mehedi Hasan, president of SBMCH Internee Doctors Association.
On Wednesday, Karimunnesa Bibi, 60, after suffering brain stoke, was admitted to female medicine ward 3 at the hospital at 2:20am and died there at 6:30am.
The attendants of the patient, alleging negligence in treatment, physically assaulted Tanmoy Barua, the duty-doctor at the ward, and Mehedi Hassan, president of the intern doctors association of the hospital.