An emergency room doctor at Hamad Medical Corp. suffered severe injuries, including broken ribs, after being assaulted by a patient’s relative earlier this week, local media reports state.

The incident, which is under investigation, has sparked an outcry from HMC staff, who say they are far too vulnerable to violence from short-tempered visitors and deserve a permanent police presence onsite.

The hospital has its own security staff, but must call the police when crimes like assaults happen, the Peninsula reports.

The two most common reasons that people lose their cool is over disagreements about treatment, which may have happened in this case when a patient entered with a bloody nose, or the long wait that patients must usually endure to be treated, doctors said.

Gulf Times reports:

“This is not the first incident of its kind in the Hamad Hospital. There have been many such incidents in the wards and in the outpatient clinics…” said one doctor.

“The reason invariably is that the family members are not satisfied with the doctor’s approach to the medical condition on hand. They would like him to follow the method which they want and this has resulted in medical blunders for which the doctor has to bear the blame,” he said.

“In some cases, the people who accompany a patient insist on admitting him but there is a severe shortage of beds. In many such instances, the patient’s condition does not merit admission but only observation and some light medication,” a source familiar with the situation said.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by StreetFly JZ