Private ambulance strike at Dhaka Medical suspended for seven days, hospital to observe the situation

Ambulance owners and drivers have suspended for seven days the strike they had called demanding permanent parking for private ambulances on the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) premises.

Badal Matbar, general secretary of the central committee of the Bangladesh Private Ambulance Owners' Welfare Cooperative Society, confirmed the matter on Wednesday evening (28 October).

The owners and drivers had begun the strike on Tuesday morning (27 October) pressing five demands, including permanent parking for private ambulances. The strike had caused suffering for patients coming for treatment and for their relatives.

The day before the strike, on Monday morning (26 October), members of the Dhaka Medical branch of the Private Ambulance Owners' Welfare Society had formed a human chain inside the hospital's Bagan Gate with demands including permanent parking and fixed fares.

The society's general secretary Md Imon Ali said they had been serving patients for a long time by keeping ambulances on the hospital premises. But with parking of private ambulances on the premises stopped and no alternative arrangement, the ambulances now have to be kept on the roads around the hospital.

According to Imon Ali, keeping ambulances on the roads causes traffic congestion and also exposes owners and drivers to cases filed by the traffic police. He therefore demanded that parking on the hospital premises be allowed as before.

DMCH director Brigadier General A K M Farhad Hossain said the hospital's overall situation would be observed over the next seven days, after which the next course of action would be decided.

The director added that a hospital is the main centre of care for patients, and the authorities do not want any disruption to medical services there.