Hardly a month after the fatal stabbing of Dr Vandana Das in Kottarakkara, junior doctors of the Medical College Hospital in Kottayam have alleged that they continue to face rape and death threats from unruly patients.
A woman doctor has filed a complaint with the Gandhinagar Police here alleging a patient who was brought to the casualty past midnight issued rape threats at her. The doctor told Manorama News that the policemen who accompanied the patient left him unattended.
"I was on 24-hour casualty duty and by 2-3 am (Saturday), the police brought a patient and left. A fellow doctor was in another room attending to some patient and this man started creating a commotion," said the woman doctor.
She said a hospital staff managed to restrain the unruly patient onto to wheelchair, but after he left, the accused started issuing verbal abuse and issued rape and death threats."
The woman doctor said she had to rush to the police aid post to alert the cops on duty. It is understood that the accused was brought to the hospital by policemen from the Ettumanoor Police Station.
It was on May 10 that a house surgeon at the Kottarakkara Taluk Hospital was brutally stabbed to death by a man who had been brought there by cops and left unattended. The murder had sparked a statewide safety audit at all major hospitals in Kerala.
Health Minister Veena George said the safety audit was completed at all medical colleges and that doctors will be able to work in a safe environment. "But that has not been implemented. On most days, a junior doctor is alone on night duty and the cops often don't stick around after they bring some patient in the night," said a colleague of the complainant.
