Sufferings of patients mount as student nurses continue strike

Relatives look after patients at Dhaka Medical College Hospital as student nurses went on an indefinite strike on October 7 in protest at a government decision to recruit nurses from private institutes. Photo: STAR

The Bangladesh Unemployed Diploma Nurses Association (BUDNA) and the Bangladesh Diploma Student Nurses Association (BDNSA) have enforced the strike since October 7 to protest the move to appoint in government hospitals 177 nurses, who passed from private nursing institutes.

The striking nurses locked the matron office at DMCH to prevent about 40 newly recruited nurses from joining their services when they came to the hospital yesterday.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The government has recently finalised appointment of 1,971 nurses in different hospitals and 177 of them have passed from private nursing institutes, the nurses claimed.

In the morning, more than 1,000 unemployed and student nurses took out a procession in the city. But police intercepted it near Doel Chattar on the Dhaka University campus at about 12:30pm as the demonstrators were marching towards the office of the Directorate of Nursing Service at Motijheel.

Following a brief scuffle with the police, the agitating nurses staged a sit-in there, disrupting traffic movement for about two hours.

Meanwhile, different organisations and individuals condemned the Wednesday's police attack on the rally of striking nurses.

They demanded fair investigation into the incident and action against those responsible for the attack.

The Karmajibi Nari, an organisation of the working women, and the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights are among the organisations that condemned the attack.

In a statement, Advocate Abed Raza also condemned the attack.