Patients and their families have been left in distress at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) as private ambulance operators launched an indefinite strike demanding designated parking facilities.

The strike left many people struggling to transport critically ill patients to other hospitals or take the bodies of deceased relatives’ home.

Md Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of the DMCH Private Ambulance Owners’ Association, said on Tuesday evening that all private ambulances had been removed from the hospital premises after the new director, Brigadier General AKM Farhad Hossain, took office.

He said the operators were later asked to clear an area beneath the hospital’s new building for use as a parking space. They installed CCTV cameras, lights and a gate there, but were subsequently told to remove their vehicles from the area as well.

Shahadat said police sergeants fined them when they parked their ambulances on the streets. The operators had spent several lakh taka setting up the parking facilities at the hospital, he added.

“Left with no other option, we have called the strike to demand a designated parking space,” he said.

He said the operators were even willing to pay the government for parking their vehicles beneath the new building, where they had installed the CCTV cameras.

The strike will continue until their demand is met, he added.

The impact of the ambulance shortage was evident on the hospital premises, where patients’ relatives were struggling to arrange transport for critically ill patients and the bodies of deceased family members.

Md Shahin, from Narayanganj, said his 70-year-old grandmother, Halima Begum, died at around 3:30pm on Tuesday while undergoing treatment in the medicine department of the hospital’s new building.

He said he had spent more than three hours searching for an ambulance to take her body to Mawa but had failed to find one.

“I never imagined I would face such a predicament at a government hospital. I haven’t even seen any government ambulances around,” Shahin said.

He said the family was already grieving the loss of a loved one and was facing further hardship because it could not arrange transport for her body.

Mohammad Monir Hossain, from Jatrabari, said his 22-year-old nephew, Md Russel, had been transferred from Mugda Medical College Hospital to DMCH in critical condition.

Russel died at around 5pm on Tuesday while undergoing treatment in the medicine department of the new building, he said.

The family then struggled to find an ambulance to take his body home.

“A doctor at the hospital suggested that we take the body away in a van,” Monir Hossain said. “Grieving the loss of a loved one, we are left sitting here, feeling completely helpless. I never imagined we would face such a situation at a major government hospital.”

Abdul Ahad, who came to DMCH from Khulna with his seriously injured mother-in-law, said she had been referred to a kidney hospital but he had been unable to find an ambulance to transfer her since the afternoon.

“Even government ambulances are unavailable, and no one can offer a solution,” he said.

“We have been sitting here for hours with a critically ill patient. If she isn’t moved to the other hospital in time, her condition could deteriorate further,” he added.

Several DMCH staff members, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many people had been forced to transport patients and bodies in auto-rickshaws, CNG-run three-wheelers and pickup vans since Tuesday morning.

They said ambulances from outside the hospital had also arrived, but patients and their families were still struggling to secure transport and had to wait for hours.

The staff members urged the hospital authorities to sit down with ambulance operators and resolve the dispute.

Repeated attempts to contact DMCH Director AKM Farhad Hossain for comment went unanswered.