Shawdesh desk:

The intern doctors and private postgraduate trainee physicians continued their indefinite work abstention on Wednesday, affecting health services across the country as the government was yet to meet their four-point demand, including payment of arrears and a hike in allowances.

A patient died unattended at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital amid the ongoing strike by intern doctors, the family alleged on Wednesday. Deceased Md Mahmudul, 55, from Pabna district, was admitted to RMCH on Tuesday night with diarrhoea.

Nurunnahar, who was lamenting sitting beside her son’s body, said that they admitted Mahmudul to the 17 no. ward of the hospital at about 10:00pm Tuesday, but there was no doctor in the ward at night.

She said that her son died shortly after the arrival of the doctor at about 10:30am on Wednesday.

Roksana Begum, who came from Rahimapur village under Mohanpur upazila in Rajshahi, said that she brought her 55-year-old father-in-law to RMCH at 11:30pm on Tuesday as the latter suffered a stroke.

She said that no doctor attended her father-in-law until 11:00am on Wednesday.

Lipi Rani, who was sitting on the veranda of the 20 no. ward, said that a patient died beside them on Tuesday night without getting a doctor.

RMCH director Brigadier General AFM Shameem Ahmed, however, dismissed the allegation of deaths caused by a lack of doctors.

‘Our mid-level doctors are working day and night. It is normal that patients will die in such a big hospital’, he said.

The director said that a total of 2,498 patients were undergoing treatment at the hospital against 1,200 beds.

A total of 210 are doing internships at RMCH after completing MBBS, while another 60 other doctors are doing FCPS and MDMS courses, according to officials.

Zabir Hossain, president of the Postgraduate Private Trainee Doctors Association, a platform for the protesting doctors, said that the protesting doctors would demonstrate in front of Central Shaheed Minar today at 10:00am again to meet the health minister.

On Saturday, the doctors started work abstention.

They declared a strike for an indefinite period after an unsuccessful meeting with the health minister, Samanta Lal Sen, and other top officials at the secretariat on Sunday.

The protesting doctors said that many trainee doctors in many institutions had not been getting the allowance for the past eight months.

They demanded an increase in their allowance to Tk 50,000 from the existing Tk 25,000 for postgraduate trainee doctors and Tk 30,000 from Tk 15,000 for interns.

The 4-point demand also includes starting the allowance for private residents and non-resident doctors at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and enacting a law for the prevention of violence against doctors.

BSMMU vice-chancellor Sharfuddin Ahmed said that the number of physicians compared to patients was insufficient.

The problem aggravated as almost half of the total physicians joined the strike, he said.

‘In the present situation, on-duty doctors are doing double duty temporarily. We hope protesting doctors will join their duty soon,’ he told New Age.

Some 2,500 trainee postgraduate and intern doctors deployed at the BSMMU hospital joined the strike.

The ratio is almost half the number of doctors in public hospitals.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital acting director Nurul Islam, however, said that any institution generally relies on regular employees as the main force to run it.

‘If the interns had worked, we could have provided better services,’ he added.

Sir Salimullah Medical College hospital assistant director Mustafizur Rahman Mollah said that they were facing extra pressure due to the strike, but patients were given proper treatment as all their medical officers, professors, and others regularly visited patients and followed them up.

Intern doctors and private postgraduate trainees in other divisions, including Khulna, Rangpur, Chattogram, and Sylhet, are also demonstrating.

As doctors are on strike, patients in hospitals continue to suffer.

After completing a five-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery course, a student joins as an intern for another year.

Doctors at different institutions secure admission to postgraduate courses to acquire specialised knowledge.

About 8,000 postgraduate trainees and 2,000 intern doctors are employed to discharge healthcare for people in hospitals across the country, along with regular doctors in hospitals.