Srinagar: Patient care was badly hit on Sunday after resident doctors at SMHS Hospital suspended emergency duties, in protest against “frequent attacks” on them by attendants of patients.
On Saturday, a few attendants had allegedly thrashed two on-duty doctors and had also broken hospital property.
The attendants were furious at the absence of adequate staff in the emergency wing and a heated argument turned ugly. Following this, the resident doctors called for a protest and subsequently suspended work in the hospital.
Doctors and hospital staff at SMHS have recently been accused of negligence by attendants of several patients.
A public protest had been held after a female patient, who was a resident of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, died at SMHS hospital. Her attendants accused the hospital staff of negligence that caused her death.
In another incident, a video was shared by a journalist on Twitter of an attendant claiming that his relative succumbed to Covid-19 at SMHS Hospital because “nobody helped her”.
“We were left alone at a time when we needed them the most. They just came forward when she was already dead and needed to be covered in a shroud,” the attendant could be heard saying in the video.
“We cut the shroud with our teeth and wrapped up the body, because there was no scissor or any other tool. They didn’t even seal her coffin properly,” the attendant said.
An attendant from Qamarwari told Kashmir Reader that his father was admitted to SMHS hospital and his condition had deteriorated after the doctors went on strike.
“It is unfortunate that doctors, who are needed the most during this pandemic, are going on strike without thinking about the ailing people,” he said.
As per the resident doctors, they want police protection in the hospital premises and restriction on more than two attendants in the hospital.
They claimed that some PG students had to leave their courses mid-way due to the trauma of suffering repeated harassment and assault by people.
Medical Superintendent of SMHS Hospital, Dr Nazir Choudhary, refuted the allegations about negligence and said that attendants had severely beaten up the doctors.
“We are following the Covid-19 protocol in the treatment of every patient, which sometimes makes some people uncomfortable and they begin abusing doctors and other staff members,” he said.
“We have deployed additional security now in the hospital for the safety of doctors and the doctors have ended their strike,” he added.

Manzoor ul-Hassan