The emergency ward of Faisalabad District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital was shut down after an argument between doctors and hospital security staff on Wednesday.
Witnesses said attendants of a patient had followed him to the ward. They said some doctors told off security guards for allowing them entry.
They said several guards and the doctors then had an argument after which Dr Abdullahcalled for a strike against the behaviour of security staff and shut down the ward. Abdullah told newsmen that the guards were required not to let irrelevant people in the ward.
“If a large number of patients’ attendants enter the ward they become a hindrance. How can we then treat people efficiently?” he said. “When we reprimanded security guards over their negligence, some of them abused doctors,” he said.
He said the doctors shut down the ward after the guards misbehaved with them. Ghulam Fareed, one of the guards, told newsmen that the doctors had insulted them over a petty issue.
He said two attendants of a patient had been allowed entry. He said Dr Abdullah came to the main gate of the hospital and abused them.
The ward was re-opened after a meeting called by the hospital’s medical superintendent.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2014.