Mumbai:
CCTV video showing a local leader viciously punching and slapping a woman doctor and other staff of a hospital near Mumbai has sparked massive outrage on social media. The incident was reported from KDMC Hospital in Thane’s Dombivli.
Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) Commissioner Abhinay Goyal said a first information report (FIR) has been filed against the corporator, identified as Ramesh Mhatre, for attacking doctors and medical staff while on duty.
Following the attack, employees of the hospital gathered in large numbers and held a protest, demanding action against the corporator from the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
A dispute over unavailability of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds triggered the assault by Mhatre and his supporters, a hospital official said. The family of a pregnant woman in the hospital was informed by doctors that the newborn may need a NICU facility, but since all such beds in their hospital were occupied, the doctors asked them to consider taking her to another hospital. The matter escalated from there.
CCTV footage showed the corporator and a group of men punching and slapping the hospital staff inside a room. The chaotic scene dragged on for over three minutes.
One of the doctors, a woman, was seen trying to use her mobile phone amid the attack. She was also seen on camera struggling to stop the men from pressing on with their attack. When they tried to take her mobile phone, she stepped back behind a desk and tried to use the phone.
Suddenly, the corporator hit her with such force from behind that the phone fell off her hand. After that, he turned back to the other staff and continued the assault.
After CCTV footage of the assault surfaced on social media, the United Doctors Front in a statement said attacks on doctors and healthcare workers are no longer isolated incidents, but are becoming frighteningly common. The public charitable trust said the attack was not on one doctor but on the entire healthcare system and every citizen who depends on it.
