KARACHI: Protesting doctors at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) closed down all outpatient departments on Tuesday, demanding action against attendants who allegedly subjected a female doctor to violence following the death of their relative.

It’s the second incident of violence involving a female doctor at the hospital.

The protest ended after health department officials assured the doctors that an FIR would be registered against the attendants allegedly involved in torture and that security at the hospital would be improved.

“The doctor was subjected to violence by a family whose relative apparently died of cardiac arrest,” said Dr Waris Ali Jakhrani, the president of the Young Doctors Association at CHK, while speaking to Dawn.

According to Dr Jakhrani, the female patient was admitted on Sunday evening to the hospital in surgical ward five and was in stable condition.

“She had infection in the gall bladder and reportedly was in stable condition. However, she collapsed as soon as she came out of the washroom,” he explained, adding that the patient’s family threw a drip on the doctor.

According to him, a female doctor was tortured by attendants following the death of their relative over two weeks ago. “The doctor was pregnant and underwent medical complications due to this torture. The patient was reportedly admitted in a critical condition in that case.”

Dr Jakhrani warned that if the government didn’t register an FIR against the accused attendants, doctors would resume their protest on Wednesday.

Additional medical superintendent at the CHK Arif Niaz said that he couldn’t comment on Monday’s incident unless findings of a committee set up to investigate the issue presented its report.

“It will present its report within two days whereas an FIR would soon be registered. The hospital administration won’t tolerate inappropriate conduct from anyone,” he said, adding that a seminar on communication skills was being organised to help medical staff improve their relationship with patients.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018