MP doctor on COVID duty resigns after Congress leader ‘yells at him’ over patient death

A doctor in a government hospital in Madhya Pradesh tendered his resignation, hours after he was verbally abused, allegedly by a few Congress leaders including former minister PC Sharma over the death of a COVID-19 patient.

“Our senior doctor Yogendra Shrivastava has resigned after some politicians misbehaved with him. A patient in a critical condition was admitted to the trauma ward this morning. Dr Yogendra told his family his condition was too critical. During treatment he died, following which some politicians misbehaved with the doctor,” Dr Rakesh Shrivastava, civil surgeon at Government JP Hospital told PTI.

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Yogendra Shrivastava is the nodal officer in-charge of the COVID-19 ward at the hospital.

In a video of the incident that has gone viral, a group of Congress leaders including Sharma and former corporator Yogendra Chouhan is seen shouting at the doctor after a critical COVID-19 patient admitted to the trauma ward of the hospital died.

Ritika Pandey, a doctor at the hospital who claims of being on duty at that time, in a tweet said the patient in question had come at 12.30 pm with SPO2 (oxygen saturation) of 33 per cent.

“…he was immediately given the primary treatment and his relatives were made aware of his conditions…we informed them that our ICU is full and we can’t admit him here…and than (then) this happened all in a span of 1 hour,” she tweeted.

Sharma, however, has denied allegations of having spoken rudely to Shrivastava and said he intervened in the matter as the patient came under his assembly constituency.

“The doctor did not talk to me in the morning when the family of the critical patient was trying to get him to talk to me over the phone. Instead, the doctor told them to take the patient to a private hospital,” PTI quoted Sharma as saying.

He, however, said that one of his supporters had spoken rudely to the doctor for which Sharma himself apologised.

“A supporter of mine spoke loudly to the doctor following which I apologized to him. A patient of my constituency died this afternoon. In such circumstances won’t a sensitive person get angry? A poor patient is being asked to go to a private hospital, nobody is talking about this,” he said.

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Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has condemned the incident, while calling people to boost the morale of doctors who are working day in and day out during the COVID-19 crisis.