MULTAN: Additional Deputy Commissioner (general) Qamarul Zaman Qaisrani has requested the deputy commissioner to take stern action against more than 15 doctors of the Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi Institute of Cardiology (CPEIC), Multan, for allegedly manhandling, abusing, threatening and keeping him hostage for two hours, it has been learnt.

On the other hand, the doctors say the officer misbehaved with nurses and staff and got physical with a doctor. They held a protest against Mr Qaisrani and sought an apology from him.

In a letter submitted to DC Aamer Khattak on Friday, Mr Qaisrani said his mother had a cardiac arrest on Wednesday at 8pm and he rushed her to the CPEIC. The duty doctor admitted his mother to the coronary care unit (CCU). Two days later, the doctor recommended discharge of his mother on Friday. He further stated that he went to the counter and asked about the discharge procedure from the nurse but the duty nurses did not bother to guide him properly and just asked him to get medicines from dispensary.

“I again requested the lady to properly guide me about the due procedure but instead of responding, the nurse got irritated while saying it was not her duty.”

Doctors level similar counter allegations against him, go on strike

Mr Qaisrani said the nurse sent him to get information from the duty doctor and added that he complained to the doctor about the rude behaviour of the staff.

“But he, instead of paying heed to my complaint, got irritated and started abusing me and called security guards, directing them to throw me out of the ward. Over my protest, he manhandled me and caught me by the shoulders and pushed me towards exit. Despite the extremely unprofessional attitude of the doctor, I did not lose my temper and completed the discharge procedure as per SOP,” he wrote.

The additional DC added that when he, along with his mother, moved toward exit gate, he received a call from Dr Khawaja Amir, who requested him to come to his office so that the matter might be resolved amicably.

“He came down the exit gate and took me along to his room.” Mr Qaisrani said he went to Dr Khawaja Amir’s office and kept waiting for the duty doctor who manhandled him. After few moments, the doctor along with dozens of other doctors entered the office of Dr Amir and attacked me.

“They manhandled, misbehaved, abused me and threatened me with dire consequences. They kept me hostage from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. They snatched my cell phone so that I might not contact anyone. After two hours of manhandling and misbehaving, I succeeded to get myself rescued on the intervention of Additional Medical Superintendent Dr Farhan,” he stated.

The ADC requested the DC to take action against the doctors for manhandling, abusing, threatening and keeping him hostage.

On the other hand, the doctors of the institute went on strike while alleging that Mr Qaisrani had first exchanged harsh words with nurses and doctors of the institute over the rush of patients and their attendants in the ICU and later on pushed a doctor.

Later, the doctors held a protest demonstration outside the emergency ward of the institute and announced to continue their protest until the apology rendered by Mr Qaisrani.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2019