Mitford hospital strike ends

Intern doctors at the Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital (SSMCH), better known as Mitford hospital, have called off their strike.

The decision came on Wednesday, three days after they had started abstaining from work protesting against a case against them filed by private Ekushey TV for assaulting its newsmen.

Their spokesperson Shoaibul Islam Shoaib told bdnews24.com they rejoined work after Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Secretary General Iqbal Arslan and the local MP assured them that the case would be withdrawn.

The President of Bangladesh Chhatra League’s SSMCH unit also said their other protest programmes such as human chains would, however, continue.

Shoaib is one of the five people accused in the case filed by ETV on Monday.

More than 200 intern doctors had gone on strike immediately after the case was lodged, which led to the suffering of hundreds of patients.

In a similar incident, interns at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) had started abstaining from work from Monday morning, following a clash between doctors and local journalists there. But they, however, returned to work on Tuesday.

After that, Health Minister Mohammad Nasim had warned of taking actions against the striking doctors.

The health ministry has already formed two five-member committees to look into the clashes at the hospitals. Both teams were told to submit their findings within a week.

On Saturday, Mitford hospital interns allegedly assaulted ETV reporters and camerapersons when they went there to cover an incident of alleged medical negligence.

The private TV channel’s Director Md Zahidul Islam filed the case with Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court accusing Mitford Director Brig Gen Md Zakir Hasan and interns ‘Shaheen’, ‘Shaon’, ‘Soaib’ and ‘Nayeem’.

Metropolitan Magistrate Keshob Roy Chowdhury has ordered the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch to submit their report on the case on May 11.

The hospital’s Deputy Director Abu Yusuf on Wednesday told bdnews24.com that they were planning to file a case against the ETV journalists.