A group of doctors and nurses refused to turn up for duty at Apollo Hospital in the city Saturday to protest against a decision to retrench some 200 hospital employees, protesters and a hospital spokesperson said.

The work abstention interrupted patients' healthcare but hospital authorities said everything was normal and management planned to retrench only surplus staff.

Nurse Moshiur Rahman said that the protest brewed after the hospital authorities started terminating a large number of physicians and nurses from the start of March.

He added that the terminations actually began on a smaller scale from December. The protest took a serious turn after the protesters failed to receive any response to requests for a dialogue with the authorities after plans were announced to terminate a large number of hospital employees en masse.

A doctor, not wishing to be named, told bdnews24.com that a total of 57 doctors will lose their job if the retrenchment plan is materilised. "The authorities are not going by the standard practices of terminating an employee," Nurse Moshiur told bdnews24.com.

"The management is using coercion on employees to sign resignation papers," he alleged. He said the authorities should follow labour laws and clear all benefits before terminating an employee.

Hospital spokeperson and general manager of media relations, Giasuddin Ahmed trashed the claim that the authorities were not following standard rules. "The decision to retrench some 200 surplus staffers has been taken for the development of the hospital facilities. They will get all their benefits in line with laws during the retrenchment," he told bdnews24.com.

Giasuddin said the hospital management was eager to sit with the protesting employees for an end to the crisis. "But we didn't get any response from the protesters," he said.

Nurse Moshiur Rahman, however, claimed the authorities have decided to retrench employees on the grounds that the hospital is incurring losses each month. "But two top officials are getting monthly salaries that are more than what we 450 nurses receive in a month," he said.