BENGALURU: In yet another case of attack on Covid warriors, a 48-year-old physician at the government-run KC General Hospital here was manhandled by relatives of a Covid victim on Tuesday evening. The cause for the altercation was supposedly the hospital authorities telling them to wait for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s approval whereas they wanted take away the body immediately.
According to a senior doctor at the hospital, a 43-year-old woman was admitted with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection on June 19 and the rapid antigen test result was inconclusive. Another test was performed and she was found to be Covid-positive and was shifted to the Covid ward.
“On Tuesday morning, her condition started deteriorating and we asked the patient’s relatives to take her to another hospital as she needed to be admitted in the ICU. Our ICU is not functioning as some staffers recently tested Covid-positive. But they refused to take her elsewhere and the patient died in the afternoon.
Then, they wanted to immediately take the body, but we couldn’t allow as protocol needs to be followed and BBMP officials have to check the packing of the body. But they got furious and started to argue and assaulted one of the senior physicians,” said a senior doctor. In a video shot by the physician, the relatives of the patient are seen arguing when one of them tries to grab the phone. “The incident happened at 4.30 pm on Tuesday and our doctor was manhandled and assaulted,” said a doctor.
Told them to take the patient to another hospital but they didn’t listen, says doctor
“They pushed him and abused him too for no fault of his. The senior doctor was so scared that he wanted to resign. We had told them to take the patient to another hospital, but they didn’t listen. They even blamed us for the death of the patient, the doctor added.” Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr B R Venkateshaiah said the police had to be called in to bring the situation under control.
“On Wednesday, we had a meeting with the police officials and submitted a representation seeking security. They have agreed to it,” he said. Meanwhile, the staff demanded that the government close down emergency services at the hospital due to the huge number of patients coming in and the lack of adequate staff. “After the incident, the medical staff didn’t want to work as they were scared. But we can’t give up on patients and I have had a meeting with the staff to resume work. We have already spoken to the government about the issue and are waiting for their response,” Venkateshaiah added.