Patna: The state chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) has criticised the Muzaffarpur sadar hospital incident in which a patient's kin beat up a medical officer, Giridhari Lal, with a belt when he refused to write an injury report the way the relatives wanted.

The incident occurred on the night of July 17. A video of the incident, in which it can be seen that the patient's relative is beating up the doctor with a belt, had gone viral on social media. IMA state secretary Brajnandan Kumar on Friday demanded proper security for doctors in the state from the government.

"Doctors cannot provide services under such a situation. We demand proper security for doctors from the state government. What is worrying is, in case of doctors' assault, defaulters have not been punished yet," said Brajnandan.

In the FIR lodged at town police station in Muzaffarpur, Giridhari has mentioned that he was working in the emergency department of the hospital and Rohit Kumar, 24, son of Sanjay Kumar, reached for treatment around 9.30pm, claiming to be injured.

The doctor has stated in the FIR that he had started writing the injury report based on the medical examination but patient Rohit and his kin started forcing him to make an injury report according to their wish and started beating him up. They stopped assaulting only after people assembled at the site. The doctor has written that in this situation, doctors' work is bound to get affected.

Another Muzaffarpur-based doctor Manibhushan was attacked by a mob of around 200 people at his hospital on July 14. The patient's attendants ransacked the hospital first and then went on to attack Manibhushan, an orthopaedic surgeon, in which he received multiple injuries all over his limbs and multiple fractures in his right femur.

The Muzaffarpur branch of the IMA and Bihar Health Services Association had dropped hints of going on a strike after the attack on Manibhushan but deferred the decision after eight people were arrested.

"The IMA has been demanding to strengthen the security measures at the grassroots level of the government health facility. The security at primary health centres should be beefed up because doctors are unsafe there too. The trauma cases first reach PHC, which is not equipped to handle such cases. When doctors there refer cases to a higher facility and sometimes when a patient dies while getting basic aid at the hospital, the chances of assault on doctors increase. The patient's attendants are unable to understand that a PHC is not able to handle such cases," added Brajnandan.