HYDERABAD: Junior doctors at Niloufer Hospital boycotted elective services on Tuesday morning to protest the assault on one of their colleagues by a patient’s kin on Monday night. The accused has been arrested and is in custody at the Nampally police station. The doctors demanded stricter security measures in the hospital, as this was the third recorded incident of doctors being assaulted in the government hospital in the last eight months. Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr Ramesh Reddy visited the hospital to discuss the issues with the doctors.
According to Md Khaleel Pasha, SHO of Nampally PS, “The accused, a 27-year-old woman is the attendant of an eleven-year-old patient at Niloufer Hospital. The attendant brought a handbag which she kept on the patient’s bed. When the doctor Dr Prathyusha, asked her to remove the bag and went ahead to remove it herself, the attendant manhandled her, and the scuffle escalated.” The accused has been arrested under Section 5 of the Medical Services Institution Act and under IPC Section 332, 509, 506. According to sources, the entire incident was caught on CCTV cameras.
Dr Ramesh Reddy, DME, visited the hospital to discuss the issue with the doctors and superintendent. Dr Murali Krishna, superintendent of Niloufer Hospital presented the DME with a letter requesting to suspend the services of the AGILE Security Force Pvt Limited. The letter read, “This is to inform you that, vide reference cited, the junior doctors of Niloufer Hospital, Hyderabad have made a complaint against the existing security services, stating that due to lack of security in the hospital, especially during night time, the incidents of manhandling of doctors by patients’ attendants are occurring. Earlier also many security lapses have been noticed.”
Three months back, a senior medical officer working at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) was allegedly assaulted by four attendants of a patient early on Monday morning. The doctors on duty then had claimed that the four attendants were drunk and used foul language before physically attacking them in the emergency ward.