A doctor on duty at a Kerala government hospital was attacked Wednesday by the father of a girl who died due to primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM) two months ago.
The incident was reported at taluk hospital at Thamarassery in Kozhikode, where the doctor, Vipin, was attacked. The injured doctor was shifted to a private hospital in Kozhikode. Police took into custody Sanoop, whose 9-year-old daughter Anaya died of PAM in August this year. After daughter’s death, Sanoop had alleged medical negligence on the part of the doctors who treated her at the taluk hospital.
Anaya’s brother, who had also been infected with the PAM, survived.
Kerala government medical officers’ association condemned the attack, calling it the government’s failure to protect doctors. To protest the incident, Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association, an association of doctors working in hospitals under the health department, said doctors will boycott outpatient duty in Kozhikode Thursday.
An eyewitness told a TV channel that the alleged accused Sanoop came to the hospital in search of the superintendent with a weapon that looked like a hatchet and assaulted Vipin, who was on duty.
This comes two years after a young doctor called Vandana Das was hacked to death at a taluk hospital at Kottarakkara in Kozhikode, prompting the state government to amend the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012, to prescribe a stringent punishment for attacks on health workers.
