After labour room attack, trainee doctors boycott work

Husband of a patient who died beat the staff on Monday night.

KARACHI:

The postgraduate trainees at Civil Hospital, Karachi (CHK) refused to go back to work on Thursday even after the administration agreed to provide them security following an attack by a grieved husband.

The boycott began on Monday when four armed men attacked the nurses and trainees working inside the labour room. An obstetrics and gynaecology assistant professor identified one of the culprits as the attendant of a patient, who had died a day earlier.

“He [the culprit] brought his pregnant wife. The doctor examined her and told him that it would take her at least three more days to go into labour since the cervix needed time to dilate,” he explained. According to the doctors, the patient was sent home but she went into labour that very night. Her husband called a midwife to handle the delivery but the woman died due to heavy bleeding.

Around 11 pm on Monday, four armed men broke into the labour room and started beating up the nurses and trainees. “There were no guards at the gates and the girls were really scared. This is not the first time something like that has happened,” said the professor.

CHK medical superintendent Dr Saeed Qureshi said that the administration cannot have “hundred per cent control over such incidents”. The hospital receives thousands of out-patients every day and “that leaves us with two choices: either to completely cordon off the obstetrics and gynaecology area or to block the access of patients to emergency departments”.

He added that the gynaecology department is closed for visitors at the moment.

Consultant gynaecologist Dr Samrina Hashmi said that a female trainee was recently harassed on her way to the blood bank. “There are drug addicts or armed men sitting by the sidewalks. Tell me if this is conducive for anyone working at the hospital?” she asked.

As the trainees refuse to work, Pakistan Medical Association president Dr Idrees Adhi refused to entertain any thoughts of going on a complete strike. “We will continue taking patients in the emergency ward,” he told the trainees.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2011.