LAHORE: Police on Saturday registered a case against attendants of a patient for allegedly torturing duty doctors and damaging property at Mayo Hospital.

The police which reached the hospital on the call of an admin official arrested seven relatives of the patient, bundled them into the van and took them to the police station.

Witnesses said the attendants had alleged that their relative Zarina Bibi, 55, died during treatment at the emergency department due to negligence of the doctors.

They were of the view that the patient was shifted to the emergency department for liver treatment. They alleged that the patient remained unattended despite repeated requests to the duty doctor and the delayed treatment led to her death.

One of the arrested relatives of the deceased woman, Shahzad, told the media that the doctors first misbehaved with the attendants. He said one of the duty doctors became annoyed when the relatives approached him repeatedly because of the critical condition of the patient.

“Nothing was done to save her life and she died without treatment,” Shahzad said while denying allegations of torturing doctors and damaging hospital property.

They had just lodged a strong protest by levelling allegations of negligence against duty doctors, he said adding that the hospital management misled the police by distorting facts.

“We were even not allowed by the doctors and the police to take the body of the woman despite knowing that we were in a state of shock due to the death of our relative,” another attendant, Mushtaq said.

Assistant Medical Superintendent Dr Temur alleged that the relatives of the woman tortured Dr Zubair, damaged furniture and windowpanes of the emergency department.

He told the police that the charged people also misbehaved with other duty doctors when they tried to intervene in the matter.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play