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Chandigarh: PGIMER doctors protest assault on resident by patient’s attendant
The junior resident doctor from the medicine department was tending to a 45-year-old female who was admitted to PGIMER’s emergency ward on Monday night; when she couldn’t survive, her daughter manhandled and slapped the doctor in public
The junior and senior resident doctors of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), under the banner of Association of Resident doctors (ARD), on Tuesday protested after a junior resident doctor was physically assaulted by a patient’s attendant at the emergency ward a day prior.
The junior resident doctor from the medicine department was tending to a 45-year-old female who was admitted to the emergency ward on Monday night. The patient died despite the resident giving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for around half-an-hour.
However, when the resident informed the patient’s 19-year-old daughter about her mother’s death, she manhandled and slapped the doctor in public.
“Despite his best efforts, the doctor could not save the patient’s life. But, the attendant’s assault on the doctor is intolerable. The doctor did not respond to assault and looking at her mental state, he just left the ward. This is not the first such incident in the country or PGIMER in particular”, Dr Rahul Chakravarty, ARD, PGIMER president said.
Following the incident, over 200 doctors gathered outside the director’s office at institute’s Kairon Block, at around 9 am, in protest. The doctors, who had suspended their duties, continued their protest till 11 am until the director called them for an emergency meeting. The emergency services continued as routine.
Following the meeting, Chakravarty said, “The protesting doctors met PGIMER director Dr Surjit Singh and demanded that an institutional committee should be formed to deal with such incidents, which should be available around the clock for the safety of the institute staff.”
“Also, the committee should be responsible for filing the first information report (FIR) to the police, so that the culprit should be punished as per law. Institutional FIR is crucial as doctors do not wish to suspend their duty to visit police stations for filing complaints. To avoid such humiliations in the future, security staff should also be increased in the Emergency ward, with one police personnel along with them,” Dr Rahul continued, adding that the director has agreed to form the committee.
Following the incident, internal medicine head Dr Jain promised that he will appoint more junior and senior residents in the emergency ward.
PGIMER director, meanwhile, also decided to appoint social workers and counsellors in the emergency ward to help better deal with the patients’ attendants
