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Dead man's family hit doctors for refusing to conduct autopsy

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Sameer Singh    16 April 2019

Bathinda: While doctors from the Indian Medical Association (Bathinda) and the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) observed a strike at the Civil Hospital on Monday and refused to conduct a post-mortem on the victim who was killed in a building collapse on Sunday, the family members allegedly roughed up a doctor.

The doctors had been observing a peaceful protest for two hours from 9 am to 11 am every day, demanding the arrest of the two accused who had assaulted on-duty doctors at the emergency unit of the Civil Hospital on Friday. The situation; however, turned bad when doctors refused to perform autopsy on the deceased. The family members reached the protest venue and confronted the doctors. There were heated exchanges and the family members mistreated the doctors. The police personnel intervened and took away the family members from the protest venue.

Following this incident, doctors observing the peaceful protest got angry and resorted to sloganeering against the violent act of the victim’s attendants. Slogans were raised against the Civil Surgeon and the Senior Medical Officer for allegedly remaining a mute spectator to the incident.

The doctors even blamed the police for witnessing the entire incident and not taking any action against the family members who hit the doctors and engaged in a heated argument with the doctors sitting on a dharna.

A meeting of representatives of the PCMS and the IMA, the victim’s family members and police personnel was later called at the Civil Surgeon’s office. The SHO of the Kotwali police station assured that the accused would be arrested. The doctors; however, refused to call off the strike.

Dr Hari Narain Singh, Civil Surgeon, said, that two doctors have been asked to report at the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, from the government hospital, Talwandi Sabo, to conduct a post-mortem. However, when no doctor arrived for conducting the post-mortem even after hours, the family members again reached the protest venue and engaged in a heated argument with the protesting doctors.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Gurjit Singh Romana, reached the spot and announced that both the accused who had assaulted the doctors in the emergency unit of the Civil Hospital had been arrested. The doctors then decided to call off the strike.

PCMS Association President, Dr Arun Bansal, IMA (Bathinda) President, Dr Vikas Chhabra and Vice-President, Dr Ravi Kant Gupta, said that the decision to end the strike had been taken for now, but the fight against violent acts against doctors by patients’ attendants would continue in future as well.

They demanded the administration to ensure adequate security arrangements so that such unfortunate incidents can be prevented in future.

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