A strike by private ambulance owners demanding parking space at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) has left grieving families and critically ill patients in severe distress.
From Tuesday afternoon, relatives of the dead ran around the hospital and its surroundings in vain for a vehicle to take bodies home.
Many were seen carrying them in CNG-run autorickshaws or pickup vans after waiting for hours.
Families of critical patients could not move them to other hospitals.
Heartbreaking scenes unfolded on the hospital premises, where the grandson of 70-year-old Halima Begum from Narayanganj waited over three hours after her death at 3:30pm without securing an ambulance for Mawa.
“I never imagined such trouble,” he said, fighting back tears. “There is no sign of a government ambulance, and the private ones are shut. Now I sit beside the body and wait.”
In the medicine department, 22-year-old Md Russell from Jatrabari died around 5pm.
He had been brought from Mugda Medical College and Hospital in critical condition for advanced treatment after suffering gunshot wounds, but could not be saved.
His uncle Md Monir Hossain sat silently beside his nephew’s body, devastated by the young man's death.
He said hospital staff had advised him to take the body away in a van.
“I never imagined that we would not find a vehicle to carry a body from such a large government hospital. We are completely helpless now,” he said, expressing anger and grief.
The strike has also put the lives of other patients at risk. Abdul Ahad had brought his seriously injured mother-in-law from Khulna.
Doctors referred her to a kidney hospital for urgent treatment, but he had been unable to find an ambulance since the afternoon.
Ahad feared her condition could deteriorate at any moment if she could not be transferred in time. Yet no one had been able to offer a solution.
“What are we supposed to do now? Please, you tell us how we can arrange something,” he pleaded.
Another visitor to DMCH, who declined to be named, said a relative had died around 10pm after spending 19 days in intensive care. Calling the national emergency helpline 999 brought no help.
The family finally found an ambulance around 11:30pm, but the operator demanded a hefty fare.
Md Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital Private Ambulance Owners’ Association, said all private ambulances had recently been ordered to leave the hospital premises.
The operators were later promised parking space beneath the new building and asked to clear the designated area. They installed CCTV cameras and lights there, but their vehicles were subsequently removed from that spot as well, he said.
“Police file cases against us if we park on the road, but we are not being given space inside the hospital either. We spent several hundred thousand taka installing CCTV cameras and a gate. We are even willing to pay the government revenue for every vehicle,” Shahadat said.
“But let me make one thing clear: our strike will continue until our demands are met.”
With no ambulances available inside the hospital, many families have been desperately searching for vehicles outside.
But the strike has also prevented those ambulances from entering the premises, leaving grieving relatives with nowhere to turn and critically ill patients waiting for transport they urgently need.