Hyderabad: Medicos stage protest in hospital after COVID-19 deceased's kin attacks doctor

Junior doctors at the state-government run Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad staged a protest on Wednesday against the attack on a doctor by the family members of a COVID-19 patient who died. The protest continued even as Telangana Health Minister E Rajender invited the protestors for talks.

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'This has been happening for quite some time'

"At this COVID hospital, we are risking our lives and saving patients and the people are beating us. This is not fair and this has been happening for quite some time," ANI quoted Navyadeep, President of the Junior doctor association as saying. "We don't want to get away from our duty," the doctor added.

The doctors have now demanded police deployment that would guarantee their protection. "Junior doctors are protesting after a doctor was manhandled. We will discuss the situation with the students. The honourable minister is inquiring about the situation from time to time," said Raja Rao, Superintendent of Gandhi Hospital.

Many of the protesting doctors held placards that read, 'We Want Justice,' 'We Condemn the Attack', Increase Security and 'Save Doctors', among others, PTI reported. A protesting doctor told reporters that a doctor on duty was attacked by some attendants of a patient with a chair after the patient collapsed and passed away in a washroom.

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The patient could not be revived through resuscitation and the attendant attacked the doctor when the latter was explaining the situation to him, he alleged. "A metal chair was also thrown at the duty doctor, he said. The patient was not supposed to move out of the bed in view of his condition," he said.

The Police has arrested two people and registered a case under the IPC and under relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Telangana Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Act 2008. "Under any circumstances, the attack on medical staff will not be tolerated and firm and legal action will be taken," police said adding: "In this time, doctors are our frontline leaders." 

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(With agency inputs)