Myanmar’s military junta has closed down three private hospitals in Mandalay for employing striking medics, The Irrawaddy reported.
It said a leaked junta order stated that the business licenses of Kant Kaw, City and Palace hospitals have been revoked as they failed to follow the licensing rules for private healthcare services.
It quoted sources as saying the hospitals, which collectively employ about 800 staff, had been targeted because they hired and helped striking medics who joined the civil disobedience movement.
Hundreds of medics from Yangon and Mandalay initiated the movement on February 3, 2021, by refusing to work under the regime, two days after the coup.
A doctor in Mandalay told The Irrawaddy that closing private hospitals would block income for striking medics. The junta has taken no action to care for the three hospitals’ patients.
Plainclothes junta personnel arrested Dr Win Khaing and two colleagues in December while he was treating patients at Palace Hospital in Chanayethazan Township.
In October and November, at least 30 doctors and nurses were detained in Mandalay. Among them was Daw Poe Thandar Aung, a striking nurse who was accused of sending medicines to resistance groups, who died at an interrogation center.
