FIR lodged against 20 relatives of deceased patient

Doctors claim attendants misbehaved, threatened staff and created hurdles

DARYA KHAN: Doctors have lodged a case at the Bhakkar City police station against a deceased female patient’s relatives. The same relatives had earlier claimed that medical negligence cost the woman her life.

Talking to The Express Tribune, DPO Shaista Nadeem said it was reported that doctors’ negligence had resulted in the death of a woman at Bhakkar District Headquarters Hospital on Sunday. Later, a complaint was filed by Ahtashamul at the Bhakkar City police station to lodge a case against 20 relatives of the deceased under sections 186, 354 and 506. Doctors claimed the attendants or relatives had misbehaved, threatened the staff and created problems for the medical team.

The son of the deceased patient, Khursheed Mai, told The Express Tribune that his mother was taken to the hospital and medics assured there was no need to worry “The doctor said it was a normal problem and asked us to stay outside. There were four nurses, but none of them could manage to administer an intravenous injection. When we objected, the doctor said necessary treatment was being provided to the patient and that there was no need to create chaos.”

Mai’s son explained that his mother was in severe pain for 45 minutes and the doctors were busy “playing games and text messaging”. He further stated that doctors were only present at the emergency, but they did not treat his mother and misbehaved with the relatives instead.

“I kept calling on number of the deputy commissioner for one-and-a-half hours [in an effort to get some treatment for my mother], but no one attended the call. We did not even beat the doctors when we were in grief,” he said.  “They are the ones who pushed us. Now, doctors have responded by lodging an FIR against us, claiming these are the rules of the hospital.”



Meanwhile, the doctors told The Express Tribune they were the ones who were beaten. The medics added that when they took the matter to the Bhakkar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Waqas Rasheed, they were reminded of their contractual and non-permanent status.

“When the patient arrived, we took her CT scan and it takes time for the report to arrive. The patient died before the report came in,” one of the doctors said. “The application of the incident has been sent to the medical superintendent. “

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2019.