FAISALABAD: Windowpanes of Allied Hospital emergency smashed by relatives of a patient.—Dawn

FAISALABAD: Doctors and paramedics of the Allied Hospital and attendants of a patient of the emergency ward scuffled on Sunday.

The attendants also manhandled a female doctor, broke the windowpanes of the emergency ward. After the patient’s death, they staged a protest demonstration also on the Jail Road.

Nadeem Ahmed, 35, had sustained injuries in an accident at Toba Tek Singh and was brought to the hospital where doctors detected internal bleeding. A female doctor reportedly gave a cut on his body to make way to bleeding. This move of the doctor to save life of the patient infuriated his attendants who allegedly started thrashing the doctor and also manhandled another doctor, identified as Kamran, who rushed to rescue her. They broke the windowpanes of the emergency also, disrupting service for a while.

Other doctors reached the emergency, managed to capture an attendant and gave him a sound thrashing.

Qasim Ali, attendant of another patient, told reporters that during the clash neither police nor the security guards of the hospital turned up to control the situation. He said clash between the doctors and the attendants frightened the patients, especially the females and children.

As the scuffle was going on, Ahmed breathed his last and his attendants gathered on the Jail Road in protest, alleging that he had passed away owing to the negligence of doctors. They said they kept requesting the doctors for proper attention and treatment but in vain. Police reached there and dispersed the protesters.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Medical Association President Rai Arif and Secretary Dr Muhammad Irfan said attendants of the deceased had damaged medical equipment and windows of emergency ward. They said almost two dozen people had entered the emergency which showed the hospital administration, police and the Punjab government had no security plan to avoid any untoward incident on the hospital premises. The administration completely failed to protect the doctors.

The PMA office-bearers demanded arrest of the culprits and registration of a case against them, warning of holding a protest in all hospitals of Faisalabad.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2015

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