Osmania junior doctors protest seeking protection
Hyderabad, May 6 (INN): Junior doctors of the Osmania General Hospital on Friday staged a protest seeking enhanced security and measures to prevent them from being attacked by relatives of patients.
Speaking to media persons, one of the protesting doctors, Dr Ravi Kumar said that attacks on the medical staff at the Osmania General Hospital (OGH) were on the rise, especially in recent times.
Dr Ravi Kumar said that lack of medical equipment and medicines invariably leads to the health of the patients suffering and the patients' relatives invariably turn their wrath on the medical staff.
'We are easy targets for irate relatives, even though we do our best to provide proper treatment. What can we do if the hospital suffers from lack of proper medical equipment or medicines? It is the duty of the hospital authorities to ensure that these medicines and equipment are provided so that we carry on with our work of treating patients,' he continued.
'The relatives easily lose their composure and target us, especially if there is a delay in attending to a patient. We have to cope with a huge number of patients at the hospital and invariably giving attention to some or the other patient is delayed. We face abuse and sometimes physical violence, even though we do our duty,' Dr Ravi Kumar added.
'Amazingly, the senior doctors are never targeted while we have to face the irate relatives,' another doctor said.
Another reason behind the frequent triggering off of tempers is the lack of medicines at the hospital. The inadequate supply of medicines means that patients will have to buy them from drugstores outside. 'Most of the patients being economically backward, opt for treatment at the government hospital. For them, buying medicines outside is not easy. They lose their cool when told to do so and this aggravates the problem,' the protesting doctors said.
The junior doctors' protest lasted for about two hours after which they returned back to their duties.
News Posted: 6 May, 2011
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