No more doctors' protest by halting medical services

We know that there are various crises in the country's medical system. Doctors have been protesting and struggling over these issues at various times. Depending on the situation, some of their demands are met, some are not. This is how the country's medical system is going on day after day. The number of doctors in the country is insufficient compared to the patients, and it is also true that there has been a teacher crisis in the country's government medical colleges since their inception; even so, despite many limitations, patients look to the doctors' faces.

In the meantime, doctors and medical students went on work stoppage in government hospitals across the country on Wednesday (March 12) to achieve five-point demands. It goes without saying how much suffering patients have suffered due to the closure of indoor and outdoor services and evening chambers in all government and private hospitals. It is known from various media outlets on Wednesday afternoon that patients from far and wide have come and waited for a long time without getting a doctor and later left the hospital without receiving treatment. None of them knew about the doctors' strike.

The information received also revealed that many doctors did not see patients in the outpatient department in the morning. Due to this movement that has been going on since last Tuesday, many emergency patients have not received medical services. As a result, one kind of inhumane situation has been created in various government hospitals. Patients who came to seek treatment are in extreme trouble as doctors locked the outdoor rooms of Mymensingh Medical College Hospital and went on strike. Patients and relatives have protested because they could not get medical services even after buying tickets for outdoor services.

The question is, can doctors hold such a strike by holding patients hostage? As far as I know, there is a provision in the ethical code of doctors to provide medical services to patients even during war. So what kind of movement is this? The five-point demands of the protesting doctors and students were - no one without an MBBS or BDS degree should use the word doctor before their name, withdrawal of the writ against BMDC, updating the OTC drug list according to international standards, resolving the crisis of doctors in the health sector, closing MTS and low-quality medical colleges and implementing the Doctor Protection Act, and filling the vacancies by quickly recruiting 10,000 doctors.

Among these, the first demand was accepted by the court on Wednesday, stating that “no one can use the title Doctor without an MBBS or BDS degree,” but "even without the title of Doctor, they can continue their private practice freely as before." Despite this, the doctors have announced they will continue their protest. They claim that each of their demands is logical and practical. They will continue their private practice freely, whether they can write the title of Doctor or not. This is something we cannot accept.

The government is trying to resolve the crisis of doctors in the health sector, in the current reality of Bangladesh, it may not be possible to fulfill all the demands right now; It is incomprehensible that doctors will continue their agitation until their demands are met. Whatever the demands, patients do not know so many details. Their question is, can't the government and doctors sit down and resolve these issues? Why are patients being held hostage by this agitation? Therefore, patients are requesting doctors to stop treatment and not join the agitation.