Hyderabad: Niloufer doctor under attack as she tries to make space for kid
Hyderabad: Security personnel failed to protect Dr Pratyusha Reddy at Niloufer Hospital when a patient's attendant, Nasreen Begum, attacked her in the wee hours of Tuesday even as another child with seizures had to be placed on the bed same bed.
Dr Pratyusha removed the handbag belonging to Nasreen to make place for another child on the bed. Nasreen got so angry that she verbally abused the doctor and tried to attack her.
The handbag had to be removed as the children’s hospital is accommodating four children on one bed due to the rise in viral fevers, infectious diseases and dengue cases.
A child with active seizures came in at about midnight and the emergency team stabilised the child and shifted her to one of the beds. During the shifting process, Dr Pratyusha noticed the handbag on the bed and kept it aside to accommodate the child on the bed.
The child who was in a serious condition occupied the attention of the doctors as they tried to accommodate the child with the other three children on the bed.
Nasreen, 27, abused the doctor verbally in filthy and foul language for removing her handbag. When the doctors asked her not to scream, Nasreen tried to grab the doctor’s hand.
The other junior doctors from the emergency section rushed in to save Dr Pratyusha. Some of the junior doctors went to call the security and raised an alarm.
Instead of protecting the doctors and controlling the situation, the government security guards started asking questions about the incident. This led to further uproar in the hospital as Nasreen continued to scream and hurl abuses. Angry doctors called their seniors, Dr Ravi Kumar and others, to apprise them of the situation. A team of senior doctors reached within the hour. The junior doctors complained that instead of helping them, the government security personnel were merely questioning Nasreen and Dr Pratyusha. The doctors alleged that instead of pacifying Nasreen, they further instigated her.
The private security guards were merely spectators and did not move an inch and watched the tamasha, alleged the junior doctors. Once the senior staff came in, the situation was brought under control. But junior doctors insisted that a police complaint be filed and an FIR was registered against Nasreen Begum under the Medical Services Act.
Junior doctors protested and did not attend elective duties on Tuesday morning asking the director of health and medical education to first strengthen the security inside the hospital premises.
The junior doctors demanded that the security personnel must work to protect them and not merely stand around as mute spectators. Nasreen was later taken into police custody.
4 kids share beds at hospital
Due to lakh of beds at Niloufer Hospital, as many as four children are forced to share bed.
The patients namely suffer from infectious diseases such as viral infections, fevers and dengue. The hospital, which has around 500 beds across the two blocks, are witnessing about 200 new admissions everyday.
The viral infections, typhoid and dengue cases are in very high number in the hospital.
From July onwards, the number of cases in the hospital have seen a major rise and there are two to three queues in the out-patient department as well.
While during the day time, the count of out-patient reach as high as 1,000, it dips to around 100 patients every night.
Some of the patients, which come in at night time in the emergency section, are quite serious and require admission. The overcrowding is due to the seasonal diseases and doctors state that this year the number of patients are very high.
