PIMS doctors protest armed robbery in hospital

Young doctors representatives warn of complete boycott of duties unless armed assailant <br /> is caught

ISLAMABAD: Doctors at a tertiary care hospital in the capital boycotted their duties on Tuesday after two doctors were looted by armed robbery just hours earlier.

The boycott though caused difficulties for patients in the outpatient department who were visiting the hospital seeking treatment for their ailments after a four-day-long Eid break.



At around 4:30am on Tuesday, House Officer Dr Aqsa Tahreem was heading towards the nursing counter in the doctor’s corridor in Surgical Ward 6 of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) when an unidentified man, wearing a blue shirt and white shalwar jumped out of the shadows.

Pointing a pistol at her with one hand, the man allegedly tried to snatch her mobile phone and handbag.

Dr Tahreem, though, resisted the assailant who pulled at her face veil, sending her crashing to the floor and leaving her with injuries to her face and arm.

Hearing the commotion, Dr Adeel Khan rushed to the spot. However, seeing that the assailant was armed, he could do little other than hand over his watch and wallet — which contained Rs7,500 and his hospital identity card.

The robber then fled while threatening to kill the two doctors.

However, during the scuffle, the robber apparently dropped his own cell phone in the ward. The device was handed over to the police for further action along with an application to file the FIR.

Hospital officials said due to Eid, most of the ward staff was on leave and there were few patients admitted to the wards at the time. Moreover, they said that the incident took place at a late hour when most of the patients were asleep.

This, they explained, allowed the culprit to gain access to and roam the different wards of the hospital easily.



Officials said that an analysis of closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) installed in the wards had shown the movements of the robber. Moreover, they had allowed officials to identify the assailant as a drug addict.

After the incident, the young doctors at the hospital staged a protest and boycotted their duties in the outpatient departments causing problems to patients who had come for consultation from far off areas after four days of Eid holidays.

Faiza, who was visiting the hospital with complaints of severe upper back and shoulder pain, said she needed to consult a physician at the breast cancer screening centre but the doctors said they were on strike and asked her to come back on Thursday as they intended to continue their strike on Wednesday as well.

The doctors, meanwhile, pointed to the poor security arrangements at the hospital. They said that often attendants scuffle with them and beat them up but the hospital administration has done little to provide any substantial means of security.

The matters had now come to a head after an armed robbery had taken place inside the hospital.

The doctors were adamant that on continuing their protest on Wednesday morning, warning that they will go on a complete strike unless the culprit is caught by then.

“We cannot work in such an unsafe and unsecured environment anymore where anyone can barge in and point a pistol at us,” complained Dr Fazal Rabbi, a representative of young doctors at Pims.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2018.