Three booked after female doctor is assaulted at Mumbai’s Sion Hospital

Following an altercation when the doctor was attending to a man’s ear in the casualty ward, two women and a man who had accompanied the patient allegedly attacked the doctor, prompting hospital staff to call the police

A female doctor was allegedly assaulted by a patient’s family at the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Mumbai’s Sion in the early hours of Sunday. Police have booked three people, including two women, and detained two of them. The incident reportedly took place when the doctor was cleaning blood from a man’s ear in the casualty ward. The man reportedly screamed at the doctor, sparking an argument. Two women and a man who had accompanied the patient then allegedly attacked the doctor, prompting hospital staff to call the police.

The police have filed charges against the three alleged attackers under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act. 

In a statement, the hospital described the incident as involving five-six intoxicated patient attendants who threatened and attempted to physically assault one of the on-call residents, who sustained injuries while defending herself. The hospital condemned the assault as “alarming” and said that the safety of their doctors was “non-negotiable”, and called for immediate attention and stricter security measures in all hospitals.

This assault comes amid a nationwide outcry over the safety of doctors, following the rape and murder of a junior trainee doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

(With inputs from PTI)