In yet another incident of hospital staff coming under attack from patients' relatives, a duty nurse at a Karnataka hospital was attacked on Sunday night.
The incident happened at the Nanjangud Government Hospital around 7 30pm, when the relatives of a patient shouted at the nurse accusing her of not treating the patient properly.
After the accusations turned into a verbal fight between the relatives and the nurses, the relatives reportedly attacked the nurse. Following this, the relatives are reported to have fled the hospital.
The Times of India reports that the hospital staff took up the matter with the Nanjagud police, where they filed a complaint against the relatives of the patient. The hospital staff has also raised a complaint with the district health officer B Basavaraju.
Basavaraju told TOI that instructions have been given to the hospital administrator to investigate the matter and submit an inquiry report within a week's time. If the relatives are found guilty of attacking and thereby preventing the government employee from doing her duty, action will be taken against them.
Attacks against hospital staff and doctors have seen an increase in the recent past. Recently in May, a mob of angry relatives of a patient who passed away, attacked a doctor in Mangaluru and even tried to abduct him.
The incident happened in a private hospital in Mangaluru, where Dr Abhijith fell prey to the anger of at least 40 people, who assaulted him.
In Kerala too, hospital staff and doctors have been protesting against the increased number of attacks on them. Most recently, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had protested in New Delhi against this. Doctors from across the country, including Kerala and Maharashtra took part in the protest under the "Chalo Dilli" campaign to highlight their plight.