Hospital staff launch their own protest in retaliation to agitators outside hospital demanding suspension of doctor for alleged negligence

The death of a fellow activist, forced a well-known social activist along with her supporters to sit in protest at the hospital where he died due to alleged negligence.

Medha Patkar, staged a protest along with a large group of followers following the death of Ramdas Patil (33), after doctors allegedly failed to attend to him at the casualty ward in VN Desai Hospital.


Medha Patkar demands suspension of the doctors in a protest outside the hospital

In retaliation to the protesters demand for suspension of doctors and nurses involved in Patil's death, hospital staffers staged a counter-protest from within, against the protesters outside the hospital.

Patil, a resident of Khar (East) complained of stomach pains in the wee hours of yesterday, and was rushed by his brother Ravindra at 5 am to V N Desai hospital, which happened to be the closest available one.
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However, Ravindra alleges that on reaching the hospital's casualty department, no doctor was present to attend to his ailing brother.

u00a0"It was only at around 5.40 am that a doctor came to attend to my brother, and after examining him, administered an injection. However, that brought no relief and he continued to writhe in pain.

After another examination, the doctor told me that he was critical and I should call my parents. Before I could call any family members, they declared him dead." said Ravindra.

Ravindra alleges that it was negligence on the part of the doctors and the nurses and failure to attend to Patil immediately, which caused his demise.

While the Patils have lost their son, the residents of the Jawahar Nagar area lost a leader. Patil was heading a protest under the banner of ghar bachao ghar banao andolan.

"The activists were supposed to protest outside the Ganesh Krupa society in Khar against a demolition drive, but instead they arrived to protest against the persons who were the cause of death of their leader," said, Dinesh Dholam, neighbour and supporter.

Dholam added that Patkar, who was supposed to join them for the protest rushed to hospital when she heard the news.

Patkar told MiD DAY, "We will continue to protest till the hospital suspends the negligent doctor and the nurses. If they sit in protest against us, we will also protest against them since such negligence cannot be tolerated."

Showing Patil's hospital case paper, she said, "Patil had reached the hospital at around 5 am, but hospital authorities have manipulated the case paper and changed the arrival time to 6.30 am to show that he expired at around 6:40 am, ten minutes after reaching the hospital."

Reacting to the protesters allegations, union hospital union officials maintained that the nurses were not at fault. "Our staffers were upset that the family was alleging negligence and had staged such a huge protest against us.
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Hence, they also went on a strike in the morning, but after senior BMC officials intervened they resumed work at around 6.30 pm. Fifty per cent of the posts at the hospital are vacant and staffers have always have to be the receiving end when such incidents happen." said Sanjay Wagh, Union secretary of V N Desai Hospital.

The Other Side
Dr Sanjay Oak, Medical Director of major civic-run hospitals, said, "We have spoken to both the striking staff and Medha Patkar and understand their concerns. Dr Amar Pajare, heading the medicine department at KEM hospital will be leading an inquiry into the matter and we expect a report in 24 hours."