Private ambulance owners halt strike at DMCH for seven days

Owners of private ambulances on Wednesday evening announced a seven-day pause on their boycott movement, which they launched hours earlier to press for a permanent parking space at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

Badal Madbar, president of the Bangladesh Private Ambulance Owners Welfare Association, announced the pauses in strike following talks with DMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Md Farhad Hossain.

The DMCH director has assured the private ambulance owners of meeting their five demands, Badal Madbar said, after the shortage of ambulances caused immense sufferings for the patients and attendants.

The five demands include permanent parking space for private ambulances inside the hospital premises, fixed fares for private ambulance services, and end to harassment by police for alleged traffic violations.

Badal Madbar said there used to be 120-150 private ambulances on the hospital premises ready to serve around 4,000 patients daily.

However, a recent ban on parking inside the hospital compound started the crisis, he said.

The ambulance owners were forced to park on the roads outside the hospital, contributing to traffic gridlocks in the area. Police filed traffic cases and caused other troubles for the private ambulance owners and drivers, pushing them to launch protests, Badal Madbar said.

They even cleaned an area beside the old hospital building with their own money to park ambulances, only to meet with restrictions there as well, he added.

Private ambulance owners are even ready to pay taxes to the government to use a parking area within the hospital compound, he said.

Brig Gen AKM Md Farhad Hossain told reporters that the officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station has been instructed to address the concerns raised by private ambulance owners.

Talks have also been held with “higher authorities” calling for including additional ambulances inside the hospital compound, he added.

The DMCH director said no bar has been imposed on the business activities of private ambulances. But they must be parked outside the hospital premises, he added.

Earlier in the morning, private ambulance owners and drivers launched the strike by withdrawing their vehicles from in and around the hospital, causing immense sufferings for patients and attendants.

Many could not find vehicles to take the dead bodies of their relatives to their homes and villages, while the injured patients could not be transported to other hospitals for availing quality beds and services.

Many families were forced to take their dead relatives back home on vans, CNG-run auto rickshaws and batter-run auto rickshaws.