Students protest in medical colleges over five-point demand

They demand only MBBS and BDS graduates be allowed to use the ‘doctor’ title

Medical students across Bangladesh have come out in the streets to demand that only Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or MBBS, and Bachelor of Dental Surgery, or BDS, graduates get to use the title “doctor".

Medical students across Bangladesh have staged protests demanding that only Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or MBBS, and Bachelor of Dental Surgery, or BDS, graduates be allowed to use the title “doctor”.

Intern doctors also joined demonstrations in solidarity with their five-point list of demands.

To press their demands, students announced an academic shutdown on Monday and a long march towards the High Court on Feb 25.

Earlier this month, students of the Medical Assistants Training Schools, or MATS, protested in Dhaka, calling for new recruitment in tenth-grade vacant posts and the creation of new positions in both government and private sectors.

Their protests have been temporarily suspended following government assurances.

Now, medical students across the country have taken to the streets with their own demands.

Under the banner of “General Medical Students”, students of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, or DMCH, gathered in front of the Central Shaheed Minar on Monday.

Protests were also held at Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Chattogram Medical College Hospital, Mymensingh Medical College, and Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College in Bogura, among others.

DMCH students put forward five key demands:

• Only MBBS and BDS graduates should be allowed to use the title “doctor”. The Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, or BMDC, registration must be exclusively for MBBS and BDS degree holders, with MATS registration revoked. The petition filed against BMDC regulations must be withdrawn within 72 hours.
• The Over-The-Counter, or OTC, medicine list should be updated in line with medical standards. No one except MBBS and BDS doctors should be allowed to prescribe medicines beyond the OTC list.
• The government must recruit 10,000 doctors immediately to fill vacant posts in the healthcare sector and extend the age limit for the Bangladesh Civil Services, or BCS, medical recruitment to 34 years.
• All MATS institutions and substandard government and private medical colleges should be shut down. Those who have already graduated from MATS should no longer hold the title of sub-assistant community medical officer but should instead be employed as medical assistants.
• A law must be enacted to protect doctors.

Ishtiaq Uddin Mohammad Taskin, a fifth-year student at DMCH, told bdnews24.com on Sunday that MATS students have long disrupted the healthcare sector.

“The law clearly says only MBBS and BDS graduates can use the ‘doctor’ title, yet they have filed a writ petition against it.

“The case has been heard 90 times, but there has been no resolution. The next hearing is on 25 February, and we demand a final decision that day,” he added.