A group of intern doctors and students from both government and private medical colleges submitted their demands to the Directorate General of Health Services on Wednesday, calling for the use of the title 鈥榙octor鈥� to be reserved exclusive for those holding a bachelor of medicine and bachelor of聽 surgery (MBBS) degree and a bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) degree.
鈥榃e have submitted our demands to a representative of DGHS director general Md Abu Jafor, as the DG was busy at a meeting,鈥� said Dr Abbas Bhuiyan, an FCPS P-II trainee at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
A sit-in programme in front of the DGHS was also held for about three hours starting at about 11:00am, he added.
Since February 23, interns at several public medical college hospitals, including those in Chattogram, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Khulna and Mymensingh cities, have been observing work abstention, while students of all public medical colleges have boycotted academic activities, pressing for their demands.
On Tuesday, the protesters announced the continuation of the programme until today in both the public and private hospitals after the High Court bench of Justice Razik-Al-Jalil and Justice Shathika Hossain on the same day set March 12 to deliver its verdict on two writ petitions filed by a Medical Assistant Training School graduate, challenging the legality of the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council Act, 2010, and a related circular issued in 2013.
Patients at several medical colleges and hospitals, including Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Chittagong Medical College Hospital and Khulna Medical College Hospital, complained of not receiving proper treatment due to the strike.
Acknowledging the disruption, the authorities of these hospitals claimed that they were managing the situation by deploying postgraduate doctors, resident physicians and senior doctors and that the doctors were working extra hours to maintain patient services.
The other demands of the striking intern physicians include an immediate halt to the registration process for MATS graduates through the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, which started in 2010, shutting down all MATS institutions and substandard public and private medical colleges, updating the over-the-counter drug list in line with global medical standards and allowing only MBBS and BDS degree holders to prescribe drugs outside the over-the-counter list, and implementing a law to protect doctors.
