Osmania General Hospital doctors may go on strike after assault of colleague

“Her health started deteriorating on Thursday, so she was shifted to the isolation ward and put on the ventilator,” he explained.”

“While shifting the patient, we told the patient family about the high risk of putting someone on a ventilator. I informed the patient as well that her situation was deteriorating, and anything could happen,” said the surgeon.

“After undergoing treatment there for 30 minutes, she passed away due to cardiopulmonary arrest. When I went to the family with the ECG flatline report, her daughter slapped me,” he recounted.

Kumar added that he followed all the protocols and even gave the patient CPR three times.

“They were encircling the patients and we had to ask them to leave the space for us to work. When we did the ECG and it came back as a flat line, we took it to the family. I was taken aback by the way her daughter reacted,” he said.

The doctors went to the Resident Medical Officer (RMO) to initiate the police complaint, but the family apologised to him.

“We had explained the situation to them, that once a patient is on the ventilator, it is usually not in our hands. But I was assaulted. We went to the RMO, and thought of filing a police complaint, but her brother — the son of the deceased — started apologising and fell on his knee,” said Kumar.

“I felt bad for him. He had just lost his mother, and this police complaint would be harsh on the family. That’s why I didn’t file the complaint,” he explained.

However, he said that medical staff at the hospital need security so that they could be protected.

‘Bare minimum security at hospital’

“Security is the bare minimum [at the hospital. Police constables are present at the casualty, but in other departments such as the Acute Medical Care unit, there is only a watchman from a private company,” said Dr Seema Tahniyath, another house surgeon at the Osmania General Hospital.

“Given the kind of patient influx that happens in the hospital, these watchmen can’t even control the crowd. Every doctor has faced a situation where they were nearly assaulted. Many of us faced very close calls because of the anger these patients’ families bring,” she said.

“Security is one of the main concerns for doctors. Even if a professor treats a person in any ward, there is no guarantee that he or she will be not attacked by angry family members,” Dr Srikanth of the Osmania Junior Resident Doctors Association told South First.

“We understand the family members’ pain, but we always give more than 100 percent for the patient. We are not getting any security from the hospital management. These security people are mostly at the gates or in the parking,” he added.

Calls for SPF personnel in hospital

Telangana Junior Resident Doctors Association President Dr Karthik Nagula told South First that there was already a Government Order (GO) — number 103 — in Telangana to provide security at Government Teaching Hospitals.

“The order came in 2019. We passed the Covid-19 period. We passed a big pandemic when the doctors were being treated harshly. But even now, the government has not deployed the Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSSPF). Every teaching hospital should be provided security with the TSSPF,” said Nagula.

Implement https://t.co/qJZF5wPicZ 103 by providing TSSPF to avoid such incidents. It’s been 3 years since the issuance of G.O.@trsharish @DMETELANGANA @TelanganaDGP @TelanganaCMO @KTRTRS https://t.co/Ug4EM5Nrue pic.twitter.com/UJ8Dyxn426

— Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association – HRDA (@ReformsHrda) October 7, 2022