Jammu and Kashmir health minister Sakina Itoo on Friday vowed action against the protesting doctors who closed emergency, operation theatre and wards at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital during protests after an attendant had assaulted a resident doctor on Wednesday night.
Itoo, who visited the SMHS hospital, said that the response of assault on a doctor was a recourse to law not stopping the patient care in the hospital.
“The (slapping ) incident should not have happened. Unfortunately, why such situations arise and that these kinds of incidents happen in hospitals. And if any person had done anything, then there are proper laws to deal with that. There should have been legal recourse not that the hospital is closed. The patients who came yesterday and suffered because of no treatment, that should not have happened. That will also be investigated and action will be taken,” she said.
Jammu and Kashmir Police had immediately filed an FIR and arrested the accused identified as Abid Hassan Bhat, a resident of Srinagar. He had slapped the resident doctor after his brother-in-law died in the emergency ward on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. The assault had triggered protests by doctors, particularly resident doctors, interns and other staff of the GMC, before calling off their strike on Thursday afternoon.
But the alleged excessive response of the doctors during the protests like blocking the emergency, closing operation theatre, stopping the patient care and even manhandling journalists has also come under scrutiny.
{{/usCountry}}But the alleged excessive response of the doctors during the protests like blocking the emergency, closing operation theatre, stopping the patient care and even manhandling journalists has also come under scrutiny.
{{/usCountry}}“Police and (health) department could have been intimated that such (assault) incidents should not happen but the way the patients were made to suffer , operation theatre was closed, wards and emergencies were closed. That was very wrong and it won’t be tolerated. If any negligence was done in patient care, this won’t be accepted and is unjustifiable,” Itoo said.
“What was the fault of patients if just one person had done anything wrong. Why are you punishing all others? We agree that if anything happened that should have been dealt with according to law,” she said.
The doctor, Dr Shahnawaz said a patient, aged around 40, had come to the hospital around 12.15 am. “I was at the reception and checked his vitals, which were non-recordable. I sent him to triage within minutes for further investigation. But during resuscitation, the patient was dead within 10-15 minutes. Then an attendant came and slapped me,” he said.
The accused, Bhat apologised to the doctor after the backlash on social media owing to a viral video of the incident. He had earlier claimed that the doctor didn’t treat his brother-in-law properly. “I told him two-three times to take a look at the patient. But the doctor just wrote a prescription and sent me to fetch them. My brother-in-law was pleading with the doctor for five minutes to administer him oxygen as he was feeling suffocated. But the doctor didn’t care. Within minutes when I returned, he was dead,” he said.
Itoo said that doctors need to treat patients with decency. “It is true that doctors are not magicians and their work is just to treat. They have to do it up to their capacity and with proper behaviour. Their behavior with patients as well as attendants should be decent because the incoming people are in distress,” she said.
“But then the OT and emergency was closed and patients were running here and there in distress, that won’t be tolerated. There will be action...,” she said.
Health system has crippled in J&K: BJP
The BJP on Friday said that the health system has crippled in J&K and blamed health minister Sakeena Itoo for this mess.
BJP Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson Altaf Thakur alleged that Itoo is responsible for complete collapse of the union territory’s public healthcare system.
Thakur alleged that government hospitals, particularly SMHS Srinagar, are buckling under systemic failure, worsened by favouritism in staffing.
“Hospitals across Kashmir are collapsing under the weight of negligence and mismanagement. Blue-eyed junior doctors close to the ruling dispensation are being pushed to the brink, while senior doctors are nowhere to be seen. If this isn’t institutional failure, what is?” Thakur said.
“This is not governance—it’s abandonment. If she cannot fix the rot in her department, she should resign and let someone competent take charge.”
He demanded a high-level audit of staff attendance, resource distribution, and operational efficiency in government hospitals.