E-Paper
Ruckus at Balrampur over patient?s death
DEATH OF a female patient resulted in a ruckus at the Balrampur hospital on Wednesday morning. Attendants manhandled a nurse whose ilk collectively boycotted duty demanding the assailants? arrest. The agitated nurses forced the closure of out patients department (OPD), operating theatres and even the emergency wards meant for critically ill patients coming to the hospital. Even the clerical staff joined hands with the nursing staff.
DEATH OF a female patient resulted in a ruckus at the Balrampur hospital on Wednesday morning. Attendants manhandled a nurse whose ilk collectively boycotted duty demanding the assailants’ arrest.
The agitated nurses forced the closure of out patients department (OPD), operating theatres and even the emergency wards meant for critically ill patients coming to the hospital. Even the clerical staff joined hands with the nursing staff. The hospital administration claimed to have restored the emergency services in the evening but management inside wards was done either by the interns or by the patients’ attendants.
Shushila (50) was admitted with severe GI problem and low general condition last night in the emergency ward of the hospital. Later, she was shifted to ward 7, bed number 2. The woman was also a cardiac patient.
During treatment she died on Wednesday morning at around 5.30 am and that made the attendants angry. They started arguing with the nursing staff present on duty. The argument turned violent when attendants attempted to snatch away the bed head ticket (BHT) of other patients recuperating in the ward.
When the attendants were resisted they beat up the nurse. The scuffle was witnessed by one of the relatives of the nurse and he tried to pacify the attendants. In turn, the attendants beat up the nurse and her relative.
Watching the situation going haywire inside the wards, police was called but by that time nurses had already called for a strike and forced all major departments, including the emergency, to close. The cops caught hold of the main accused in the episode, who had misbehaved with the staff nurse.
Worst affected were the outdoor patients who were not aware of the sudden development. The hospital has a regular OPD of at least 1700 patients every day but on Wednesday not a single could get consultancy.
Doctors were forced by the angry nurses to leave their OPD chambers and the clerical staff, who staged a demonstration outside the emergency ward only.
Even the Provincial Medical Services Association (PMSA) office-bearers who work in the same hospital could not do much to put things back on track. They attempted but could not convince the agitated nurses to go back to work.
“Things went bad and affected the OPD and listed operations in the hospital. We rushed two interns for every ward to stabalise the inward patients while talks continued with the agitating nurses,” said chief medical superintendent of the Balrampur hospital Dr GK Tripathi.
Late in the evening, director of the hospital and DG (medical health) Dr SS Srivastava took stock of the situation. After holding talks for hours with Dr Tripathi and Dr Srivastava, the nurses finally allowed functioning of the emergency ward and ICU.
