Doctors on strike protesting assault over patient’s death

Doctors and staffers of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital have gone on strike since yesterday morning, after relatives of a patient, who allegedly died in wrong treatment, beat up a doctor.
Although the emergency department became functional in the afternoon after a team from the army visited the hospital, other departments remained closed until the filing of this report around 10:00pm.
The incident occurred after the death of Aziz, a patient from ward 6 in the town, who was admitted to the CCU of the hospital around 1.30am yesterday.
The patient’s relatives alleged that Aziz died after a painkiller injection was pushed in his body.
Claiming that the patient died due to wrong treatment, the patient’s attendants severely beat up a doctor named Kazi Sajeeb at the hospital. Different parts of the hospital, including the ICU and CCU, were also vandalised.
The authorities have halted medical services since then.
Doctors, nurses, and other hospital staffers said they would not return to work if the attackers were not arrested within 24 hours.
In the hospital’s CCTV footage, four men were seen beating Sajeeb. At one stage, he lost consciousness.
The hospital authorities said from the footage, they have identified two attackers, named Asif and Mehdi.
Hospital superintendent Dr Mong Ting Yeo said, “The patient’s condition was critical. In the situation, the patient’s attendants should have provided him with effective care. But no one was present at that time. Still our doctors tried their best.”
Despite such efforts, the doctor was attacked, he added.
The superintendent said the work abstention programme announced by the doctors will continue until the attackers are arrested.
However, patients will suffer at the hospital if they refrain from providing services, he said, adding, “We are trying to resolve the issue.”