Madhya Pradesh doctor suspended for beating up patient for not disclosing HIV status

Indore: A junior doctor of the government-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital (MYH) in Indore was suspended after a purported video showing him slapping an HIV-infected person surfaced on Saturday, an official said.

The official said the 45-year-old HIV-infected man was sent to MYH from a hospital in Ujjain for treatment of a broken bone.

The junior doctor was angry at not being told by the patient or his attendant about the HIV infection before the start of the bone treatment, the official said.

In the purported video of the incident, the junior doctor is seen continuously slapping the patient lying on the stretcher and also abusing him.

MYH Superintendent Dr Pramendra Thakur said the junior doctor, who is posted in the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, has been suspended with immediate effect.

MYH is affiliated to the city’s government Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, whose dean Dr Sanjay Dixit has constituted a three-member committee to investigate the case and submit a report in three days, Thakur informed.

“We had brought the patient to MYH for treatment of a broken bone. He is already infected with HIV. The junior doctor beat him up for not being informed about the HIV infection. I too was hit when I intervened to stop the assault,” the patient’s attendant claimed.

The attendant said he had lodged a complaint about the incident with the CM helpline.