The medical staff of Nazareth Hospital in Shillong on Saturday expressed anguish over frequent incidents of assault on medical professionals.
The statement was issued by Dr Gordon Rangad, chief medical officer of Nazareth Hospital on Saturday following mob attack on a junior doctor, after an elderly person with a possible heart attack died in a hospital in Bengal recently.
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Following this attack, the junior doctor received serious head and other injuries.
“We wish to express our sense of humiliation and outrage at the frequent incidents of assault on medical professionals in our country. Unfortunately, this trend is increasing all over India with the feeling that if a patient dies, it is the doctor’s fault, and causing physical harm as well as damage to property is quite acceptable,” Dr Rangad said.
As doctors, Dr Rangad said, “We certainly may make mistakes, and there may be instances of negligence, but the public has every right to take the individual or Institution to the court of law for redressal. Now it appears to be the rule of lawlessness rather than the rule of law. We are not law enforcement professionals who may expect to be physically assaulted in the line of duty.”
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“We are quite unknown on the national scene, but we feel constrained to express our anguish among our people here, while understanding that we feel that we are blessed in many ways because of the restraint and understanding which we have always found in Shillong as well as in Meghalaya in general,” he said.
Dr Rangad hoped that the Government will take stringent steps to ensure the rule of law and safety of its citizens.