It was like any other night shift for six doctors — four of whom were women — at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay casualty on Sunday. The 13-hour shift, which began at 8 p.m., soon turned into a nightmare when they were attacked by three people who walked in with a woman patient just before midnight.
“It was usual crowd on Sunday and we had a few cases in the casualty. We were getting into the flow of things when around 11.30 p.m. a woman aged around 30 to 32 years was brought in with complaint of abdominal pain. She was accompanied by three attendants who appeared to be drunk. The patient was given primary treatment. She was then asked to wait for 10 minutes to monitor the affect of the medicine, and to see if she needed to be referred to a specialised department,” said Dr. Sumit Paria, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association at the hospital.
‘Screamed at the guard’
He said that the doctors had sensed their annoyance at being asked to wait. “The doctors on duty were busy attending to others and explained that this was being done to monitor the affect of the medicine. Once outside, we heard them screaming at the guard. They attacked him, which is when the doctors rushed out. Other guards were called in immediately and the attendants were escorted outside the main gate,” Dr. Paria added.
Police control situation
But it did not end there. “They returned shouting. The women doctors were asked to go into the chief medical officer’s room. We locked it from outside and stood guard. We were shocked, frightened and confused about how the situation was taking a violent turn. Despite being escorted outside again, the attackers came back through a back gate and continued abusing the doctors and damaging hospital property. The situation was brought under control only after the police stepped in,” he recalled.
Amresh, one of the accused, has served as a guard at the hospital. He has alleged that his wife was not attended to by doctors in time.
The doctors, meanwhile, have again demanded a safe work atmosphere. “Many guards came to the rescue of the medical staff on duty on Sunday night. We are under constant strain because of the volatile atmosphere. Anyone can walk in and assault the medical staff at any time of the day or night. This is too much fear to work with. The government needs to wake up,” Dr. Paria added.
