ROURKELA: Emergency services came to a halt for some time in Rourkela on Monday with the service providers protesting attack on an ambulance driver by family members of a Covid-19 victim. Relatives of the victim also staged road blockade at Panposh protesting attack by supporters of the ambulance driver, leading to a law and order situation in the area.
Earlier on Sunday, alleging negligence in treatment, relatives of the Covid-19 victim staged a demonstration outside the Hi-Tech Covid hospital. They alleged that the hospital authorities refused to give information about the patient to them following which they went inside the hospital on Sunday night. They found the patient lying on the floor and struggling with pain and after sometime, he passed away.
Accusing the hospital authorities of not providing timely treatment to the victim, his relatives held a demonstration on the premises at around 11 pm. Later, the body was taken to Vedvyas for cremation, but the accompanying relatives picked up a quarrel with the ambulance driver insisting him to show the deceased’s face to all of them. When they allegedly attacked him, the angry driver returned the body to the hospital.
Again on Monday morning, the driver agreed to take the body to Vedvyas but midway, some of his supporters stopped the ambulance at Panposh and allegedly beat up the relatives of the victim. The incident led to a road blockade by the relatives and simultaneously, many ambulance service providers stopped their services. Police had a tough time managing both the sides and restoring normalcy.
RN Pali IIC BK Bihari said a case has been registered against four relatives of the deceased patient and a counter-case was registered against 10 persons including the ambulance driver and some hospital authorities. He said appropriate action would be taken on completion of investigation.
Ambulance driver carries patient on stretcher for 1.5 km
Malkangiri: Driver of an ambulance and his associate carried a patient for over a km on a stretcher as the vehicle could not reach the village due to bad road condition on Monday. The driver received a call for shifting a critically ill patient from Gotijodi village under Mathili block to the nearest health centre. He, however, could not reach the village due to bad road condition. With no way out, the driver and his associate decided to walk to the village, 1.5 km away, with a stretcher and brought the patient to the ambulance. He was then taken to Pandripani CHC from where he was shifted to DHH.