A patient has died at the Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) while hundreds in Rajshahi city go without treatment with doctors on strike since Thursday in protest against the jailing of a clinic owner, a physician himself.
Rajshahi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate sent Dr Samiul Haque Shimul, owner of Dolphin Clinic, to jail after rejecting his bail prayer in a case of alleged medical negligence that caused death of a patient.
The order prompted the doctors of public and private hospitals and clinics to go on an indefinite strike.Dr Shimul is the Joint General Secretary of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) and also Organising Secretary of Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad of its RMCH unit.
The owners of private clinics had announced the strike on Thursday evening, demanding Dr Shimul’s release.
Later at night, RMCH units of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) and Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad (Swachip) threatened to suspend medical services at all public and private hospitals and clinics in the city until Dr Shimul’s release.
But it was said that the RMCH emergency department would operate with two physicians.
Ashraful Islam, 35, critically injured in a road accident, meanwhile, succumbed to his injuries at the RMCH on Friday afternoon, a day after he was admitted.
His brother said Ashraful had been admitted around 9pm on Thursday and blamed his death on the doctors’ strike, alleging that he had been denied proper treatment.
Asked about the allegation, the intern doctor of the ward, Tahmina Sultana Tama, said that the medical services at the hospital was not being hampered in absence of ‘senior’ physicians and that in case of emergency, the intern doctors were providing medical treatment to the patients in consultation with their seniors.
Eight-year old ‘Babu’ of Ullapara Upazila, is undergoing cancer treatment at the same hospital.
His father Harun-or-Rashid told journalists that the child had undergone a medical test at a city diagnostic but the report was not available till Friday afternoon because of the strike.
“The child’s treatment is being delayed in the absence of doctors.”
One Abu Bakar Siddique came to the city from Shibganj Upazila in the morning for his wife’s ultrasound examination but had to go back as all diagnostic centres were shut.
Rakib Chowdhury came all the way from Natore district with his aging father suffering from an acute urinary problem that prevented the passing of the fluid. But the RMCH was without doctors and no clinics were open to admit him either.
Under this circumstance, he had no other option but to hire an ambulance and rush to Dhaka along with his father at around 11:30am.
General Secretary of the Rajshahi unit of Private Clinics and Diagnostic and Nurses’ Association Dr Mokhlesur Rahman denied allegations that the private clinics were holding patients to ransom to have their demands met.
“We don’t want to hold the patients hostage. But we’ve no other option but to go on strike,” he said.
A said it was not unusual for a patient to die under treatment but it was unfair to pack off an eminent doctor to jail on a murder charge.
He said that they would continue the strike until Dr Shamiul was released.
Anwarul Haque Tipu, a businessman, died on January 29 while he was undergoing treatment of a broken leg at local Dolphin Clinic which is owned by Dr Shamiul, a senior physician of the orthopaedic department at RMCH.
Tipu’s wife Sharmin Akther filed a case against three physicians of the clinic, including Dr Shamiul, at the Boalia Police Station in the city over Tipu’s death allegedly due to wrong treatment.
After Dr Shamiul appeared before the court of Rajshahi Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in the case, it sent him to jail after rejecting his bail petition.-bdnews24.com
