Attendants of an accident victim vandalised property at the emergency ward of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) on Saturday midnight and reportedly thrashed hospital staff before getting involved in a scuffle with doctors, police said on Sunday.
Noorjahan, a resident of Hindpiri in Ranchi, sustained severe head injuries in a road accident and was brought to RIMS at around 11.45pm, doctors said. Around 20 to 30 men from Hindpiri and neighbouring Bariatu Basti brought her to the hospital.
The attendants, doctors said, broke glass windows at the emergency ward and slapped an intern on duty.
Soon, information about the scuffle was circulated in the WhatsApp groups of doctors and they rushed to the emergency ward to rescue their colleagues. After realizing that they might get outnumbered by the doctors, the unruly attendants fled, eyewitnesses said.
“We have asked the administration to check CCTV footage and take action against all the attendants involved in vandalizing property and thrashing doctors,” said Ajit Kumar, President of Junior Doctors’ Association of RIMS. The patient, he added, was critical, and died at around 12.30 am.
While cops from the Bariatu Police Station rushed to the hospital soon after receiving information about the incident, no complaints have been lodged with them yet. Sanjeev Kumar, the Officer In-charge of Bariatu Police Station said prima facie, it seems that the attendants were at fault.
“The RIMS administration has not lodged any complaint with us yet. We reached the spot soon after the incident, and it seems that the attendants were the ones who created unwarranted ruckus,” said Kumar.
This is not the first incident wherein a patient’s attendants have vandalized property at RIMS or manhandled doctors. In April 2018, the attendants of a girl suffering from poisoning allegedly dragged a junior doctor out of the Outdoor Patient Department (OPD) and attacked him. In February last year, a doctor was heckled by attendants of a patient at RIMS prompting medicos at the hospital to go on an indefinite strike. A couple of months later, in June, a nurse was thrashed by attendants of a patient who died in the hospital. This incident too caused uproar by RIMS staff.
In a bid to ensure safety of medicos, the doctors at RIMS have also been demanding the implementation of the Medical Protection Act in Jharkhand and have gone on strikes several times for the same.
The Act mandates imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of Rs 50,000 for attacks on doctors, nurses and hospital establishments.