Doctors hold protest after assault on a postgraduate resident doctor by COVID patient's kin

Doctors of Erragada Chest Hospital in Hyderabad staged a protest on Tuesday after an alleged assault on a colleague by a COVID patient's kin. After examining the patient, the doctor asked his attendants if he took his blood pressure medicine. The kin got furious saying "It's your job, not ours and thrashed him," alleged Dr Pranay, a postgraduate resident doctor at Erragada hospital.

A postgraduate resident doctor's mask was allegedly torn by the attendants of the patients and he was allegedly slapped and kicked on the abdomen by the attendants of the patients in the COVID ward, said Dr Pranay. Luckily, there were other staff members present in the ward who rescued him, lifted him and brought him out of the ward, added Dr Pranay.

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Referring to various incidents where doctors have been beaten by patient's families, Dr Pranay said, "This has happened a lot of times, every time something like this happens we come out of protest but the issue gets diluted. We have been demanding security from the governments but we have not got it."

The doctors have spoken to the administration and they are yet to know if an institutional FIR against the patient's family members has been filed or not, added Dr Pranay. Dr Pranay requested the people to please maintain their sanity when they are in the hospital as a doctor is doing everything they can. The doctors were seen carrying placards with messages like "Zero Tolerance against violence", "Save the Saviour", written on them.