Two Arrested In Gandhi Hospital Doctor Attack Case As Medicos Protest Goes On

HYDERABAD: Two persons were arrested in connection with the attack on a junior doctor at the state-run Gandhi Hospital here on Tuesday night. Junior doctors continued their protest on Wednesday, even as state Health Minister E Rajender invited the protestors for talks.

The two accused had assaulted the medico following the death of a 55-year-old man infected with COVID-19 in the hospital yesterday. Following the attack, doctors staged protest inside the hospital premises since last night.

City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar said both the persons were arrested. A case was registered under IPC sections and under relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Telangana Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions Act 2008.

“Under any circumstances, attack on medical staff will not be tolerated. Most firm and stringent legal action will be taken. In this time doctors are our frontline leaders,” (sic) a tweet from the Hyderabad City Police Twitter handle said

The junior doctors, who began their protest after the alleged attack, squatted on the road in front of the hospital and raised slogans condemning the incident.

Many of them held placards that read, ''We Want Justice,'' ''We Condemn the Attack'', Increase Security and ''Save Doctors'', among others.

A protesting doctor told reporters that a duty doctor was attacked by some attendants of a patient with a plastic chair after the patient collapsed and passed away in a washroom. The patient could not be revived though resuscitation and the attendant attacked the doctor when the latter was explaining the situation to him, he alleged. A metal chair was also thrown at the duty doctor, he said.

The patient was not supposed to move out of the bed in view of his condition. Attendants are usually not allowed for COVID-19 patients in the hospital, he said.

Appealing to the junior doctors to call off their protest, the health minister invited the representatives of the medicos to the Secretariat to discuss the issue.