Attack on doctors at GMC Hospitals leads to protest, strike

Doctors at two GMC Srinagar hospitals were beaten up by attendants of patients on Saturday, triggering protests and strike. The strike was called off Sunday evening “in the interest of patient care”.

Resident doctors at GMC Srinagar hospitals stayed off work on Sunday to protest attack on their colleagues at SMHS Hospital and Super Specialty Hospital the previous day.

   

The doctors also staged a protest outside GMC Srinagar demanding security and action against the attackers. Work at these hospitals was affected due to the absence of resident staff.

A resident doctor working at SMHS Hospital said

that a junior resident was severely beaten up by attendants of a patient admitted at SMHS Hospital’s COVID19 ward.

He said that the doctor was examining another patient in the ward while the attendants demanded that their patient be seen first. “Soon they started hurling abuses and resorted to physical violence against the doctor,” he said.

Soon after, another resident doctor said, the attendants were joined by people who came in from outside and they started beating other doctors as well. “The doctors had to run for their life,” he said.

The beating resulted in severe injuries to the doctors and they had to get emergency medical care, the resident doctors said.

The incident, he said, was reported to police and they soon reached the spot. “However, the culprits had fled,” he said.

A similar incident was reported from Super Specialty Hospital. Many doctors expressed anguish over the shortcomings in healthcare infrastructure and manpower allocation for COVID19. “If we have a lesser number of doctors, nurses and other staff in hospitals, is it a fault of a doctor?” a senior resident at Super Specialty Hospital asked.

He said the Government needed to put in “more real efforts” than engage in “lip service”.

“Both patients and doctors will reap the benefit of a robust healthcare system,” he said.

Dr Nazir Chaudhary, medical superintendent SMHS Hospital said the incident was “a very unfortunate one and could set a dangerous precedent”. He sought public cooperation in handling COVID19 pandemic at the hospitals. “Wearing a PPE kit for the entire time, examining all the sick patients, the number of whom is increasing and then dealing with public outrage is too much to ask for,” he said.

He said a doctor working with COVID19 patients was always under stress. Dr Chaudhary said the demand for security had been addressed in consultation with Additional DC Srinagar and SP Srinagar.

Dr Chaudhary said people needed to respect and protect healthcare workers as they were “the only resource that was impossible to be replaced”.

“If our doctors get infected or off work due to some other reason, how will we handle the pandemic,” he said.

The strike was later called off “in the interest of patient care,” Dr Chaudhary said.

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