Agartala, April 11, 2019: In yet another assault on medical practitioner, one on-duty doctor was attacked by aggravated relatives of patient at city’s one of the premier hospitals – IGM at the wee hours of Thursday. It is learnt, Dr Dipankar Debnath was physically assaulted severely by one Gobinda Das of Lankamura in Agartala. It is alleged, the accused ‘abducted’ the doctor and thrashed him mercilessly. Police and Hospital security personnel rescued him in unconscious state outside the Hospital premise. The Chief Medical Officer of IGM filed an FIR with local Police and alleged that Govinda Das attempted to kill Dr Debnath.
It is learnt, wife of Govinda Das was admitted at IGM with ‘early labour’ but her condition deteriorated and when when Doctor informed the family members about critical condition of the patient, Govinda Das along with others started threatening the Doctor. At around 11.45pm last night, the patient collapsed which aggravated Das further, however, in presence of Police, family members were convinced and left the Hospital early Thursday morning.
But soon, Gobinda Das along with others attacked the resident surgeon Dr Dipankar Debnath and pulled him outside the labour room and thrashed him brutally. In the FIR, the CMO alleged, Dr Debnath was abducted forcefully outside the Hospital with a ‘willful intention of killing him’. Dr Debnath received multiple grievous injuries all over the body and head.
In FaceBook post, All Tripura Government Doctors Association (ATGDA) condemned the attack and appealed to “all medicos (doctors, nurses, paramedics) to gather in front of IGM Hospital today at 4:30 pm”.
It may be noted, another medical practitioner, Dr Dipak Mitra posted at Srinagar PHC in Sabroom under South Tripura district was manhandled and assaulted allegedly by a local ruling party leader on April 1 last. The assault drew large scale criticism and condemnation – however, attack of Dr Debnath on Thursday has exposed that nothing has changed ensuring safety and security of doctors and also highlighted vulnerability of medical staff.
“The issue is not only security of medical staffs, other patients were panicked as chaos prevailed – safety of patients is also at stake”, commented one agitated doctor.
