Hyderabad: The issue of government hospitals facing undue political pressure came to light once again after a second year student from Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) Dr Veera Prasad was allegedly abused by a patient’s attendant for delay in treatment. He was later pulled up by the hospital administration due to political pressure.
The attender had tried to arm twist the doctor to attend to the patient asap citing connection with the mayor. When Dr Veera refused to speak to the mayor over phone, the mayor called the hospital superintendent Dr V Chandra Shekhar, who then summoned Dr Veera to his office and allegedly humiliated him. The incident happened in the department of general medicine on January 2.
Narrating the incident in a letter to the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA), Dr Veera Prasad said, “The patient came with left upper limb pain radiating to chest. I advised ECG and when the patient attender came back with ECG, he was very rude. I asked him to come in the line, the ECG was in normal limits, so I advised some treatment. After giving that treatment I asked him to stay back for 10 minutes and said that if the pain doesn’t subside, I will repeat ECG again. After that, one attender came to me with his phone saying some mayor is on the line, but I didn’t take the call since there was lot of rush.”
After this, the hospital superintendent called him to his chamber. “The hospital superintendent humiliated him and called out his father’s occupation. He felt so insulted with this type of attitude and pressure during duty hours, that he has conveyed to us that he has decided to leave his PG seat,” the Kakatiya Junior Doctors association stated in a letter shot off to the KMC principal.
Hospital superintendent, however, categorically denied threatening or humiliating the student and said that he has summoned the duty medical officer (DMO) who was supposed to be manning the unit. He claimed that the junior doctor had turned up in place of the DMO.
“This is an unfortunate incident. I had only told him that he could have taken the VIP’s call to avert this problem. The call was for the DMO who was missing from duty. I have issued a memo to the erring duty doctor and incident report has been sent to the director of medical education. After he refused to speak to the VIP, I got a call from the Mayor herself. This was to be attended by the DMO. It’s not the student’s fault,” said Dr Chandra Sekhar.
Later, KMC principal Dr D Mohandas met students and assured that he will intervene and ensure that such incidents are not repeated.
The attender had tried to arm twist the doctor to attend to the patient asap citing connection with the mayor. When Dr Veera refused to speak to the mayor over phone, the mayor called the hospital superintendent Dr V Chandra Shekhar, who then summoned Dr Veera to his office and allegedly humiliated him. The incident happened in the department of general medicine on January 2.
Narrating the incident in a letter to the Telangana Junior Doctors Association (T-JUDA), Dr Veera Prasad said, “The patient came with left upper limb pain radiating to chest. I advised ECG and when the patient attender came back with ECG, he was very rude. I asked him to come in the line, the ECG was in normal limits, so I advised some treatment. After giving that treatment I asked him to stay back for 10 minutes and said that if the pain doesn’t subside, I will repeat ECG again. After that, one attender came to me with his phone saying some mayor is on the line, but I didn’t take the call since there was lot of rush.”
After this, the hospital superintendent called him to his chamber. “The hospital superintendent humiliated him and called out his father’s occupation. He felt so insulted with this type of attitude and pressure during duty hours, that he has conveyed to us that he has decided to leave his PG seat,” the Kakatiya Junior Doctors association stated in a letter shot off to the KMC principal.
Hospital superintendent, however, categorically denied threatening or humiliating the student and said that he has summoned the duty medical officer (DMO) who was supposed to be manning the unit. He claimed that the junior doctor had turned up in place of the DMO.
“This is an unfortunate incident. I had only told him that he could have taken the VIP’s call to avert this problem. The call was for the DMO who was missing from duty. I have issued a memo to the erring duty doctor and incident report has been sent to the director of medical education. After he refused to speak to the VIP, I got a call from the Mayor herself. This was to be attended by the DMO. It’s not the student’s fault,” said Dr Chandra Sekhar.
Later, KMC principal Dr D Mohandas met students and assured that he will intervene and ensure that such incidents are not repeated.