Nurse Geeta Kumari undergoes treatment at the emergency ward of PMCH on Sunday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, April 10: Medical services at the capital’s premier health hub, Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), virtually came to a halt after nurses in the hospital struck work for several hours following an attack on one of their colleagues by angry relatives of a patient today.

Geeta Kumari (45), the nurse, was allegedly hit by an oxygen cylinder on her hands and is undergoing treatment at the emergency ward of the hospital. The protesting nurses resumed duty after the hospital administration promised to look into their security-related demands and called them for a meeting tomorrow.

Doctors attending upon the nurse said they are waiting for the X-ray report to see if she has any fracture on her hands.

Sources said Geeta was on duty in the neurology department of the emergency ward when she was attacked. “Geeta, along with two other nurses, was sitting in the nurse room on the first floor of the ward when angry relatives of an accident victim shouted at her. She went to check the condition of the patient who was admitted yesterday. She learnt that the doctor had already declared the patient dead. She told this to the three relatives attending to the patient. The relatives got more angry and accused her of negligence, claiming that the patient had developed complications as the oxygen cylinder had no gas,” said Shanti, a nurse in the emergency department.

“The angry patients started abusing and beating up Geeta. They even lifted the empty oxygen cylinder and tried to hit her on the head with it. She ducked to save her face and head and the cylinder hit her on the hands. Both her hands got severely injured and she started bleeding profusely. What’s shocking is that no one came to save the nurse when she was being attacked by the attendants,” the nurse added.

Meanwhile, an officer at the local Pirbhore police station said that one person, identified as Naveen Kumar, who had a scuffle with the nurse, was taken into custody after an FIR was lodged.

“The person was taken into custody. The matter is, however, not very serious and he was released later,” the officer said. Once Naveen was taken into custody, his family members sat in protest in front of the PMCH with the dead body. They protested for at least an hour, demanding the release of Naveen.

Following the incident, over 1,000 nurses — both regular and contractual — went on strike for several hours, demanding proper security cover at each ward.

“This is for the third time in the recent past when one of our colleagues has been attacked by agitating kin of a dead patient. This happens because we are soft targets for everyone. There are no doctors in the departments to attend to the patients. We are overworked all the time. On top of that, we also have to face the wrath of angry attendants of the patients. We demand that security guards be deployed in each and every ward. We are meeting the hospital superintendent and also going to the chief minister’s janata darbar with our demands,” said Pramila Kumari, senior member of PMCH Nurses’ Association.