Coming in support of doctor accused of attacking the bystander , Doctor's Association demand proper inquiry

It was alleged that a prescription regarding the X-ray of a patient was not clear and when the patients' party went to rectify the error, the doctor misbehaved with them. However, Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association (KMPGA) has opposed the suspension of the doctor and claimed that a proper inquiry needs to be conducted before taking any step against the doctor. The incident that took place at the casualty ward of highlighted the daily plight of resident doctors and the lack of security of the government medical professionals, stated the association.

The doctor has been identified as Dr. Anantha Krishnan and he has been working in the hospital for a long time now. In the viral video, the doctor is seen hurling abuses at bystanders and he even warned a bystander not to record the incident during an argument inside the Emergency Medicine section of the hospital. However, Dr, Krishnan stated that the video was only an attempt of tarnishing his reputation and his outburst was a direct result of how the patient's party behaved with the hospital staff, especially with one of the female house surgeons.

Describing the incident Dr. Krishnan told Medical Dialogues, " As far as my memory goes, there were some people who visited the casualty and some of them were even drunk. They claimed that the staff at the X-ray section returned him after some mistakes were noticed in the prescription given by a doctor at the orthopedic casualty section on January 29. The doctor initially only ordered an X-ray of the hand but later he complained about his legs also. Both the patient and his caregiver had to return to the casualty after waiting for long at the X-ray section. However, I later contacted the doctor and he told me that since there was no physical injury on his leg and the patient was in fact walking, he did not deem it necessary to order an X-ray of the patient's leg."

" Later, the patient's party came back and started creating a scene. As the doctor who prescribed the X-ray was busy in an emergency amputation case, I attended to him and included a leg X-ray in the prescription. The hooligans were shouting at a woman house surgeon who was on duty then at the casualty section. They abused me and I had to take a stand. As for the allegations of threatening the bystander, I just asked her not to use the phone in the casualty as it is the rule."

The KMPGA President Dr. Mithun Mohan told Medical Dialogues that the caregivers came back again and entered into an argument with the doctor. The resident doctor then tried to calm them down by explaining that they had to keep working in a tight schedule and they should be cooperative. The doctor tried to convince them to let X-ray examination be done and later treatment can be decided based on that. The patient's party, however, was in no mood to listen and started misbehaving with the resident doctor and other health staff again. Thus, the resident doctor lost his temper and reciprocated in a similar manner.

" This kind of incident keeps on occurring as there is no proper security in most of the hospitals. Often doctors have to step in to handle agitated patient parties and soon it turns into a conflict. We need a proper security system to handle it. Our association just thinks that it is important to conduct a proper inquiry before taking any step against the doctor", added Dr. Mohan.