Doctor assaulted, suffers head injury, lands in ITU. Colleagues go on strike
Dr. Gouri Shankar Mahapatra of the Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital(CNMCH) was attacked by the relatives of a patient on Wednesday. It happened after the patient, 60 year old Mohammad Kamaluddin died in the hospital. The relatives of Kamaluddin claimed that the death was due to negligence. Dr. Gauri Shankar, a post graduate trainee doctor was on emergency duty at the time of the patient’s death. The attack had him in the ITU.
A strike that went on for more than a day
Following the attack, the junior doctors of the hospital went on a “cease fire” which lasted over a day. Refusing to give in to warnings from Swasthya Bhawan, they demanded for assurances for security and also apt punishment for the assaulters.
Dr. Joy Das Barman, another post graduate trainee at the hospital said to the newspaper, The Times of India that the purpose with the strike wasn’t disrupting of services at the hospital. He said that with the ever present risk of attacks, it’s difficult for the doctors to treat the patients. The demand is for proper security to prevent such attacks in the future as also the arrest and punishment of the attackers, he said.
The agitation which went on for over 24 hours was withdrawn on Thursday night after a meeting with the hospital authorities. The latter gave assurance of enhanced police presence ,restricting the number of people who assist patients and also installing more number of CCTV cameras.
Image credits: The Telegraph