Medical intern assaulted at KEM after patient death

Five days after resident doctors across the city called off their 86-hour long strike to demand better security in hospitals, a medical intern at KEM Hospital was assaulted by the kin of a patient who died. Kunal Pise (27), who was admitted with high fever at KEM Hospital on Wednesday night, died of a cardiac arrest on Thursday morning.

Pise's father, Gurubachan, along with other relatives roughed up Dr Pravin Hankare, who was on duty intern in the fever ward at that time. "The relatives held him by the collar and accused him of sleeping on duty. They kept saying the patient died because of his carelessness," said a KEM staff member.

Gurubachan Pise is a former employee of KEM and Class IV workers at the hospital struck work for four hours claiming that the patient was neglected. "The patient's condition was critical and he should have been admitted to the ICU instead of the general ward. Often, kin of employees are not treated at par with other patients," said Pradeep Narkar, secretary of Municipal Mazdoor Union.

On the other hand, Association of State Medical Interns (ASMI) claims that medical interns are given step brotherly treatment compared to the resident doctors. "We supported MARD when they demanded better security and we want the same for the interns. They cannot be expected to work without supervision. The only reason we didn't go on a strike was because the government recently assured us of better security and we hope it will live up to the promise," said Dr Dhaval Shah, secretary of ASMI.

After the incident, the interns met with the dean who assured them that henceforth each intern will be supervised by a junior resident doctor. No police complaint was filed as the relatives apologised for the incident.

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