Chennai: Government hospital nursing students stage protest

Chennai: The nursing students of the Government Kasturba Gandhi hospital for women and children staged a protest demanding safety on the hospital premises on Friday, two days after five nursing students of the hospital were chased and attacked by a patient’s relative.

According to sources,  a 62-year-old woman who was admitted to the female ward on July 17, started vomiting blood a few minutes after a nursing student administered an antibiotic injection.

When the patient vomited blood, the nurses put her on a stretcher and rushed her to an emergency room to get help from doctors. Even as the doctors were attending on the patient, the family of the patient started chasing and attacking the nurses who gave her the antibiotic injection. One of the nurses said while they were being chased and attacked, no one in the hospital intercepted them.

Demanding action against the family and to beef up the security inside the hospital premises, the nursing Students gathered outside the resident medical officer’s room and raised slogans.

Meanwhile, the Director of medical education Dr  Edwin Joe visited the hospital and held talks with students and assured that CCTV cameras would be installed in strategic locations and attendee passes would be issued to restrict entry. “Security guards will patrol around the wards instead of just guarding the gates,” he said. They called off their strike around 2. 30 pm. A case has been registered by  Triplicane police.