PIMS doctor beaten black and blue

Islamabad: Young doctors of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Wednesday served a 48-hour ultimatum to the government, threatening a full-fledged protest on Friday morning if it fails to provide foolproof security cover to them during duty hours, and if it does not immediately arrest the culprits behind Wednesday morning’s physical assault on a doctor, who was beaten black and blue by attendants of a patient.

The young doctors gathered outside the hospital’s administration block on Wednesday to condemn the incident where attendants of a critically ill 14 year-old patient, who came with thalasdemia and was being treated for dilated cardiomyopathy for the last three days, brutally thrashed one of their colleagues Dr. Saqib when their patient suddenly collapsed and died.

The doctor sustained injuries on his forehead, neck and arm. The attendants are alleged to have taken the doctor’s cell phone and wallet with them. The doctors on duty claimed to have tried their level best to save the patient’s life. As a matter of fact, she was brought to PIMS after being refused admission by hospitals in Abbottabad and Rawalpindi because of her critical condition.

The protesting doctors alleged that the administrator of PIMS Dr. Raja Amjad Mehmood has categorically dismissed the possibility of security cover being arranged for them. “After holding consultations with the General Council, YDA Islamabad has served a 48-hour ultimatum to the government for the arrest of culprits, provision of security to doctors, nurses, paramedics and other staff members of the hospital, and suspension of a useless hospital administration that cannot make security arrangements,” a YDA statement said.

YDA has explicitly communicated its intention to close all services of the hospital, inclusive of emergency and ICU, if action is not taken against the culprits within 48 hours. “We would like to ask the administration why the hospital’s own security personnel did not show up on time, and why they stood there as silent spectators when they eventually did arrive,” chairman of Federal Doctors Association Dr. Asfandyar Khan stated.

“Such incidents have become a matter of routine at PIMS; only three days ago, two similar incidents took place in the medical ward and ICU of the Children’s Hospital, where attendants misbehaved with lady doctors. We will not remain silent in the face of such unruly occurrences,” Dr. Asfandyar pointed out, attributing the episode to the combined inefficiency of the PIMS administration and security department.

“We even forget our own families when attending to patients, and yet people feel no inhibitions in attacking us while we are on duty. To top it all, an inept administration too does not stand by us,” one of the protesting doctors regretted.

YDA’s president Bilal Awan, Secretary General Dr. Shahid, and former president Dr. Shakeel Khattak led Wednesday’s protest. The leadership and members of various other workers associations of PIMS also joined in.