Ekbalpore: A police officer who underwent wrist surgery at CMRI Hospital on Wednesday morning was accused of slapping a junior doctor in the evening "without provocation", triggering a ceasework by doctors in all wards except the emergency and critical care units.
The hospital lodged a complaint with Alipore police station against the officer-in-charge of Jadavpur police station, Pulak Kumar Dutta, for allegedly slapping postgraduate trainee Srinivas Geddam with his left hand and grabbing his neck.
Geddam suffered a cut in his neck, according to the complaint.
Doctors at CMRI hadn't withdrawn the ceasework till late in the night, saying they would do so only if Dutta apologised. "Such behaviour by a patient cannot be tolerated. He assaulted me without the least provocation. How can we go on treating patients in a scenario like this?" Geddam, who is from Andhra Pradesh, told Metro over phone.
"The patient is on diabetes medication. Since the prescriptions his family had submitted at the time of his hospitalisation do not mention clearly at what time he takes the three medicines, I had to seek a clarification. I was only asking at what time of day he takes certain medicines. He suddenly got excited and started hitting me," 28-year-old Geddam, attached to the plastic surgery department of CMRI, said.
Dutta had been admitted for surgery after a fall at home on Tuesday. Nobody from his family was available for comment.
A mob attack on CMRI in February 2017 over a case of death allegedly caused by medical negligence was the trigger for chief minister Mamata Banerjee setting up the West Bengal Clinical Establishments Regulatory Commission.
The alleged attack on Geddam a year and a half later occurred around 7pm outside the sixth-floor cabin that Dutta was sharing with another patient. "The portion of the corridor where the incident happened is under CCTV surveillance. If the footage is checked, it will be for all to see how he started hitting me," Geddam said.
He also accused the officer of threatening to have him kidnapped.
An officer at Alipore police station said: "We are conducting an inquiry (not investigation) and a case is yet to be registered. We spoke to him (Dutta) and he said he did not hit the complainant. He accused the doctor of misbehaving with him," the officer said.
