Woman doctor assaulted at Kasturba Gandhi hospital

NEW DELHI: A woman gynaecologist at Kasturba Gandhi Hospital was on Monday morning reportedly manhandled by relatives of a patient who was denied admission in the hospital.

In retaliation, doctors at the hospital went on strike, bringing emergency and OPD services at the hospital to a halt and forcing patients to be transferred to LNJP Hospital.

In the evening, however, the strike was called off after police registered an FIR against two women assailants.

The protesting doctors said that a woman patient had come to the emergency ward in the wee hours of Monday and given paracetamol tablets by the gynaecologist.

"After half an hour, a mob descended on the casualty ward and started misbehaving with the junior resident gynecologist.

"Two women pulled her hair, pushed her and abused her for not admitting the patient," informed a senior doctor of Municipal Corporation Doctors Association.

She added that a security guard deployed in the emergency ward was also assaulted by the mob.

The doctor further said that the protest was called off after the administration assured that a police post would be set up inside the hospital and security will be increased at the emergency ward entrance.

A senior official at Health Administration, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, confirmed that police registered an FIR against the attackers in the evening.

"We are constantly in touch with the police. They will soon arrest the culprits. I have asked the doctors to stop the protest considering the plight of patients coming to the hospital," he added.