Staff Reporter :
Agitated interns and private postgraduate trainee doctors have withdrawn their strike following an assurance from the health minister over meeting their demands, which included an allowance hike and payment of their arrears.
President of the Postgraduate Private Trainee Doctors Association, a platform of protesting doctors, Zabir Hossain, announced on Thursday that their work abstentions were suspended after a meeting with the health minister, Samata Lal Sen.
“We suspended our strike for a month based on a meeting with the health minister, and the minister assured us to meet our demand soon after Eid-ul-Fitr,” said Zabir.
Earlier on Saturday, the doctors started work abstention and gave an ultimatum to meet their demands. On Sunday, they declared an indefinite strike to press their demands, as a discussion with the minister and top officials of the ministry went in vain.
The agitated physicians said that many trainee doctors at many institutions were not getting allowances for the past eight months.
They demanded an increase in their allowance to Tk 50,000 from the existing Tk 25,000 for postgraduate trainee doctors and Tk 30,000 from Tk 15,000 for internee doctors.
Their four-point demand also included allowances for private residents and non-resident doctors under Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and the enactment of a law for the prevention of violence against doctors.
