VIP Culture: Female Doctor attending to critical patient, threatened by Collector, Colleagues see red

Raipur: A case of alleged misbehaviour and intimidation against a senior female doctor on duty at Narayanpur District Hospital has come to light, sparking outrage across Chhattisgarh’s medical community. The doctor was reportedly abused and threatened by an additional collector while she was attending to emergency patients on Friday night.

The incident occurred around 10 PM when the doctor was attending to a patient with a severe head injury and hypovolemic shock in the ICU. At the same time, the collector arrived at the hospital with his child, who had a mild case of diarrhoea.

Following standard medical procedure, the doctor asked Thakur to wait briefly as his child's condition was stable. On the other hand, she was handling a critical case. However, this infuriated the concerned official, who allegedly forcibly entered the restricted ICU area without permission and began verbally abusing the doctor.

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According to a social media post, he demanded immediate treatment for his child and pressured her to leave critical patients unattended. The situation escalated, causing chaos from the ICU to the hospital corridors, police help desk, and casualty ward.

Even after the child received medical attention, the situation worsened. He allegedly continued to threaten the doctor, saying he would use his political influence to get her transferred or suspended. He has even been accused of calling the doctor, "do kaudi ke doctor" (which roughly translates to ‘a doctor worth two pennies')

The incident triggered a strong response from the medical community. On Saturday, three major doctors' organisations - Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA), Chhattisgarh Doctors’ Federation (CGDF), and Chhattisgarh Indian Doctors Association (CIDA) held a protest in Raipur, demanding action.

According to a TOI news report, they submitted a memorandum to the state health minister, calling for a public apology from the leader and a fair investigation into the matter. They also demanded strict disciplinary action, clear guidelines for the respect, dignity, and safety of doctors at their workplaces, priority for doctors in the allotment of F-type accommodation, and proposals for administrative reforms.

The organisations said that the use of objectionable words like "do kaudi ke doctor" not only undermined the dignity of the medical profession but was also deeply insulting towards women. They emphasised that this issue concerns the dignity and safety of women and the entire medical community, which cannot be ignored.

Furthermore, the organisations proposed several administrative reforms, such as limiting inspections of health institutions to IAS officers, having health nodal positions and review meetings led only by senior administrative officials, and ensuring complaints related to doctors are investigated only by health department officials (CMHO/CS). They also requested that collectors be instructed to ensure respectful behaviour towards doctors and that no repressive action be taken against doctors participating in peaceful protests.

The organisations condemned not just the actions of the AAP leader, but also a separate case where an additional collector allegedly insulted a senior female doctor using offensive language like “do kaudi ke doctor” (meaning "a doctor worth two pennies"). This added fuel to the already growing anger among doctors in the state.

Dr Resham Singh, president of JDA, Dr Heera Singh, president of CGDF, and Dr Piyush Srivastava issued a joint statement condemning the incident. They urged the state government to intervene and take immediate action.

Dr A S Chauhan, spokesperson, CIDA, said, "The government has been formally informed about the matter through correspondence. He added that if satisfactory action is not taken quickly, organisations across the state may be compelled to suspend their services.

Narayanpur district collector Pratishtha Mamgain confirmed that the complaint was received on June 19 and said an inquiry has been launched, headed by the district panchayat CEO, who is also a doctor.

Commenting on the matter, she said, "I constituted an inquiry headed by the Narayanpur district panchayat CEO, who is herself a doctor. Initially, the complainant and other doctors posted at the district hospital were reluctant to cooperate and also stalled the OPD work, affecting poor patients seeking treatment. Now that the complainant has begun cooperating, we are hopeful the issue will be resolved soon."

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