Sudden strike by doctors puts brakes on surgeries at BSMMU
Hundreds of patients underwent immense suffering at the countrys biggest hospital, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University (BSMMU), yesterday, after they were denied surgery following a sudden strike by doctors.
Physicians of BSMMUs anaesthesia department had announced a strike to protest against an altercation over a trivial matter.
We have taken the initiative to ensure that the situation becomes normal. Operations were delayed on Sunday because of an unpleasant issue involving two physicians of the hospital, BSMMU director Abdul Majid Bhuiyan told reporters.
Two physicians of the departments of anaesthesia and hepatology were involved in a dispute on Saturday. According to sources, a medical officer, Dr Qawsar, had gone to the anaesthesia department for a test on his wife. However, though he identified himself, the physicians of the anaesthesia department told him to wait.
Dr Qawsar allegedly exerted pressure on the anaesthesia departments physicians, urging them to operate on his wife without any delay. He later called up the president of the BSMMU hostel, Dr Mamun, who is also a medical officer of the anaesthesia department. He threatened his colleagues for making Dr Qawsar wait.
An altercation ensued, and the two groups of physicians were at loggerheads with each other on the campus since Saturday.
The strike has hampered activities related to operations, said the dean of the surgical department, Kanak Kanti Barua. He explained that only emergency surgeries were performed between 10am and noon yesterday; other operations were suspended.
Thirteen surgical departments depend on the anaesthesia department to conduct operations at BSMMU. Around 150 surgical operations are performed at BSMMU everyday.
Al Mamun Hawlader, a relative of a patient named Rekha Rani of Barisal, told reporters that her neck operation had been scheduled at 7:30am yesterday. We were told after being taken to the operation theatre that the operation would not be conducted. We are now in a fix. We managed to get the schedule after 15 days, he lamented.
Another in-house patient, a seven-year-old boy identified as Sabil, was also denied surgery for nephritis. My child is suffering from kidney-related diseases. We had a schedule for his operation on Sunday. We had made preparations since morning, but the staff told us at 11am that the operation would not be conducted, complained his father Jony Islam.
