Mt Hagen hospital staff protest doctor’s assault

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Source:

The National, Tuesday July 16th, 2013

 By JAMES APA GUMUNO

DOCTORS at the Mt Hagen provincial hospital in Western Highlands began a stop-work protest yesterday after one of their members was badly beaten by relatives of a dead patient last weekend.

The 31 doctors have given the hospital management and board 48 hours to respond to their demands concerning security of hospital staff.

They condemned the attack on their colleague and called for the people involved to be arrested and charged immediately.

The doctors claimed that the hospital’s security guards had collaborated with the relatives of the deceased from the Moge tribe and therefore did not intervene to stop the attack.

The doctors said their colleague could have been killed if the police did not arrive in time.

They said that this clearly showed that there was no proper security at the hospital and other doctors would be subjected to similar treatment if the hospital management did not impose tougher security measures.

The doctors said they wanted a favourable response by tomorrow and failing that would continue their stop-work until the hospital management satisfied their demands.

They added that they would only attend to emergency cases while waiting for the hospital management to respond.

The doctors also called on the leaders and relatives of the deceased patient to explain the motive behind the attack.

Meanwhile, provincial police commander Supt Martin Lakari said police had started an investigation into the incident.

He said people involved in the attack would be arrested and charged.