CHENNAI: Close to 200 doctors at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) staged a walkout on Monday morning, after relatives of a 20-year-old, who had died in their emergency room, roughed up doctors on night duty.According to the doctors, Karunakaran was brought in to the emergency ward at 3.20 am after he was met with an accident. As his condition was critical, doctors were unable to save him and he died shortly afterward. “When we told the father and brother that he had died, they accused us of killing him,” said an angry second-year PG student. “When we told them there was nothing else we could have done, his brother slapped the duty doctor,” he alleged. Following this, six other doctors came to their aid, but the boy’s dad, brother and friend apparently injured them in the brawl that ensued.The Flower Bazaar police were called and father Karuppiah, brother Kannan and friend Sakthivel were detained. After repeated demands made by the protesting doctors, all three men were arrested and remanded to custody by Monday.However, what scares them more is the lack of safety, said the protesting doctors. “At least as men, they were able to defend themselves. What would we have done?” asked Shanmugapriya, a female first-year PG medico. At night, security in the emergency and outpatient wards is non-existent, they further alleged. They were angry that the police had not taken any action after their earlier complaint. “Three months ago, a patient’s brother slapped the doctor on duty, and we wrote to the commissioner requesting protection. However, nothing came of it,” said the administrator at RGGGH. After the arrests were made, the PG students, who were in government service returned to duty, “The private PG students did not back down till much later,” said a fuming hospital administrator. They also brought up the murder of ESI doctor Sethulakshmi in her clinic in Tuticorin, as another example of how unsafe it is for doctors. Regarding the backlash of informing relatives that their son/ward is dead, the hospital administrator said, “This is a problem that we face sporadically, and one that we have not been able to find a permanent solution for,” he charged. After four hours of negotiations, they agreed to DCP T S Anbu’s offer to post eight policemen in four public wards for 24-hour security. “We will be sending eight policemen on a bandobust basis to ensure that doctors feel safer,” said Anbu.
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