Obstructing medical services at hospitals

For days we witnessed medical services being hampered as intern doctors at some hospitals in Bogra, Sylhet and Barisal abstained from work to protest the penalising of four interns at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and Hospital for assaulting a patient's relative. The incident which led to the interns being penalised itself was a shocker, and had brought to the fore once again a growing culture of violence at hospitals, followed by hospital closures or disruptions in delivering medical services to patients.

This tendency of declaring strikes at hospitals, out of the blue, is both dangerous and disruptive. Doctors' strike is unacceptable. And even more unacceptable are sympathetic strikes. Wild cat strikes by doctors lead to increased sufferings for ordinary people, who have no other option but the public hospitals to turn to for treatment.

Clearly, this endangers people's lives, something that the doctors are oath-bound to save. Yet, we have seen hospital services being suspended for a whole host of reasons over the recent past. And in all cases, it is the innocent patients who are, unfortunately, made to suffer. When this becomes a regular feature, what does it say about our medical sector in general?

To reverse this notable decline in medical services, hospital authorities across the country must ensure this does not happen again. It is essential that all professionals working in the sector understand the importance of delivering timely treatment to patients, and the serious consequences that its obstruction may give rise to.