A gynaecologist at the state-run Civil Hospital in Thane was assaulted by a pregnant patient’s relatives on Saturday night after an argument over the doctor’s decision to wait for the woman to go into labour rather than perform a caesarean section. The incident happened hours before the Indian Medical Association (IMA) announced the creation of a ‘violence registry’ to document every assault against medical personnel or establishments on Sunday, the National Doctors’ Day.
A police official also said that the four accused assaulted the woman gynaecologist after she objected to one of them recording the ward premises on a mobile phone. Thane PRO Sukhada Narkar on Sunday said that a case was registered against the miscreants in a local police station.
While the IMA called the registry a desperate need of the hour, activists said redressing patients’ grievances effectively would have been a better approach.
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In Saturday night’s case, the four accused—Vicky Kadam, Sagar Patil, Digambhar Kasbe and Mangesh Kiratkar-—were arrested immediately. Pooja Kasbe (21), a resident of Vangani, was admitted to the hospital two days ago but as she and her baby were healthy, Dr Vrushali Gorvar decided to wait for her to go into labour. “This is the woman’s third delivery and the previous two were normal. The family too agreed to wait for another day and was happy that this delivery would be normal,” said Dr Kailash Pawar, civil surgeon.
However, on Saturday night the accused arrived at the hospital and questioned Gorvar why the delivery was not done yet. “Patil and Kadam were drunk and started arguing. She tried to reason with them but they continued to argue. They then started video-shooting patients in the maternity ward and the doctor told them not to do so as there were mothers feeding children. When she tried to snatch away the phone, the four attacked her, pushed her and abused her. She sustained minor bruises,” said Pawar.
In Maharashtra, over 52 incidents of violence against doctors and vandalism have been officially reported since 2010 to 2017. The IMA has also proposed the formation of local doctor groups to rush to each other’s aid in the eventuality of an attack. It has also a.sked all members to install CCTV cameras at their centres. The theme this year for Doctors’ Day was ‘Zero Tolerance to Violence Against Healthcare Professionals.’
IMA’s Dr Parthiv Sanghvi said at a press conference on Sunday, “In the absence of videos, nobody takes cognisance of such complaints. A video showing real instances of violence will be played on loop at the reception of hospitals and nursing homes.”
However, some doctors said the medical fraternity has failed to self-regulate in the last 60 years. “Doctors can’t be allowed to self-regulate. We have to accept that bodies like Maharashtra Medical Council are just shielding other doctors,” said Dr Arun Gadre, co-author of the Dissenting Diagnosis that exposed some naked truths about the country’s medical profession.