The healthcare services for outpatients remained suspended at the District Hospital Ramban here on Saturday as the doctors and paramedical staff held a protest against alleged heckling of an on-duty doctor by an attendant and misbehaviour with him by a DDC counselor. However, the emergency services remained unaffected.
The hospital staff told Greater Kashmir that on Friday 9 pm, a teenage girl suffering from stomach pain was brought to the hospital from Kanthi village of Ramban by some people and a driver accompanying the patient asked the doctor to attend her immediately.
“The doctor however asked the attendants of the patients to wait for some time as he was treating some other patients. Irked over delay from the doctor’s side, an attendant of the patient pulled the jacket and dragged the doctor in front of others,” one of the staff members said.
“Another attendant accompanying the patient made a phone call to a DDC counselor from Ramban, who is also a district president of BJP, and put the call on out-speaker-mode wherein the DDC counselor used unparliamentary language against the doctor,” the staff member said.
The doctors at the hospital said that the patient was looked upon and she is responding to the treatment.
However, on Saturday morning, the doctors and paramedical staff assembled outside the district hospital and demanded legal action against the person who allegedly heckled the doctor and the DDC counselor for using “unparliamentary” language against the medico.
When contacted, the DDC counselor and district president BJP, Rakesh Thakur told Greater Kashmir that “after receiving a phone call from the attendants of patients, I requested the doctor to cooperate with a poor ailing patient”. Thakur, however, refuted the allegations of using unparliamentary language against the doctor.
Soon after receiving information about the incident, the Deputy Commissioner RambanMussarat Islam visited the hospital where doctors and paramedical association submitted a written memorandum to him.