On-duty doctors assaulted by attendants of a patient at Silchar Medical College

March 11: In an unfortunate incident on the day of Holi, Dr. Jahangir Laskar, along with his colleagues were manhandled by the attendants of a patient at Silchar Medical College & Hospital (SMCH). As per reports, Dr. Jahangir Laskar along with his colleagues were on duty in the emergency department of SMCH. It was then that the attendants of a particular patient appealed to release their patient immediately. The doctors on duty asked them to wait as for releasing any patient, paper works needs to be done. This was enough to lose the temper of the attendants and they started abusing the doctors.

The more the doctors tried to pacify the attendants and explain them to allow to finish the official formalities in connection with the release of their patient, the more anger was showered by the ‘unruly’ attendants who alleged that their plea was not given any priority. It was then that Dr. Jahangir Laskar urged upon the attendants not to misbehave. Just at that moment, they started to physically assault Dr. Jahangir and his other colleagues. As a result, Dr. Jahangir sustained grave injury in his eye. The other doctors along with him also were injured.

Expressing his reaction in social media, Dr. Dawipan Deb wrote, “The pictures you see today is not an accident, but a usual day in the life of a doctor in India. Today, when the whole country was celebrating Holi, some drunk miscreants entered as usual patients in the emergency and assaulted the doctors on duty at Silchar Medical College & Hospital. The injury was grievous and required several stitches. The doctor could have easily lost his eyesight (God forbid).”

Saying so, Dr. Dawipan raised the pertinent issue of the security of the doctors in duty. He said, “The question is how long will this continue? Has the society lost all its patience? I wonder how a professional can be professional when there’s so much hatred and misconceptions prevailing among us today. Requesting my friends here to share this post so that the guilty is bought to justice and immediate security measures be taken by the District Administration atleast during festivals. Or should we just quit?”

However, the doctors were successful there to catch hold of the ‘unruly attendants’ and hand over them to the Police. Though the identity of the persons arrested was not yet disclosed, but it was learnt that they were put behind the bars at Ghungoor Police Out Post. In this connection an FIR was also lodged by Dr. Jahangir Laskar.