Dr Najma Salim, who spoke up about alleged negligence at the COVID-19 intensive care unit of the Government Medical college hospital in Ernakulam has given a police complaint saying that a media organisation and few other groups were spreading fake news about her.
Recently, Najma had supported a nursing officer who in an audio note had explaned to other nurses in the hospital that they needed to be more careful as there has been cases where patients lost their lives due to negligence. The nursing officer named Jalaja was immediately suspended and though no one in the hospital spoke up for her, it was juniormost resident doctor Najma who told the media that there were at least three instances where the ventilation tubes and oxygen masks of the patients in intensive care units were not placed properly.
Following her revelation, there were allegations that she was a member of the Kerala Student Union (KSU) student, the student wing of the the Congress party. There were efforts to discredit her, branding her as part of the opposition, Najma says.
In her complaint to the Kalamassery station house officer she says that Deshabhimani daily (a newspaper run by the CPI(M), the party's trade union CITU's unit in Kalamassery, a Facebook group named Government nurses and a person called Sudhir KH were spreading rumours that she used to be a member of the KSU.
"Their allegations are baseless. I was humiliated by such fake news. Many social media stories have portrayed me badly. I fear that I will be attacked due to these fake stories. I request you to probe this at the earliest and take appropriate action," her complaint says.
Meanwhile KSU's Ernakulam unit responded saying that Najma did not belong to their organization. KSU said that she did not even have a membership in the organisation.
On Thursday, VS Sunil Kumar, the minister in charge of COVID-19 containment in Ernakulam district told the media that allegations against Kalamassery Medical college hospital will be taken seriously and action will be taken. He also added that it was not right to use the issue for political gains. He added that the hospital provides best care to its patients.