Pradeep Kumar, a muscular man in shades and tattoos, pulls up on a
motorcycle, ready for his job as a bouncer. Not at a nightclub, but at
another workplace: a hospital.
Bouncers
in uniform stand guard at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in New
Delhi. The hospital has hired bouncers to protect doctors as well as
keep the emergency and labor rooms from filling up with patients' often
agitated relatives and friends. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das. He and his burly colleagues keep the emergency and labor rooms
from filing up with patients' often agitated relatives and friends. The
bouncers are polite, yet so tough-looking that people think twice about
ignoring their orders. "These guys look like they walked right out of an action movie," said
Pawan Desai, who brought his 4-year-old daughter to Deen Dayal Upadhyay
Hospital in New Delhi for treatment for a cut on her hand.
Working in a hospital can be dangerous. In April, a week before
DDU hired the
bouncers, friends of an emergency-room patient punched a
doctor in the face and broke his nose before going on a rampage with
hockey sticks, swinging at windows, lights, furniture and medical staff.
The medical staff at DDU, a government hospital, had faced nearly one
attack a month and had gone on strike 20 times over six years demanding
better security. Since the hospital replaced its middle-aged,
pot-bellied guards with bar bouncers, bodyguards, and wrestlers sporting
muscles and tattoos, "there hasn't been a single incident," said Dr.
Nitin Seth, the doctor who was injured in April.
"These guys do a good job controlling the crowds," he said.
Security guard Amarjeet Singh helps a patient on
a stretcher at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in Delhi. Singh and 20
other bouncers have been hired to protect doctors as well as keep the
emergency and labor rooms from filling up with patients’ often agitated
relatives and friends. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
Thousands of attacks occur in hospitals every year, said Dr. Narendra Saini, spokesman for the Indian Medical Association.
In January, a man in Chennai was charged with using a sword to hack
to death a surgeon he held responsible for his pregnant wife's death
during surgery. Three months later, a mob at a Delhi hospital beat up
six doctors in retaliation for supposed sexual misconduct after the
medical staff unsuccessfully tried to resuscitate a female patient using
CPR.
When someone dies in the hospital, relatives often start blaming —
even attacking — doctors. At expensive private hospitals, families feel
especially cheated, Saini said. "They expect their patient to live
because that's what they paid for."
The DDU Hospital guards, a team of 21 split across three shifts,
cover the busiest areas of the campus, especially the emergency and
labor rooms.
Singh gives directions to an incoming patient at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
People who come in with pregnant or trauma patients "are most likely
to lose their cool," Kumar said. "That's why we try not to let in more
than one per patient."
The only way to prevent a bad situation from getting worse is to keep
people moving and not let crowds collect at all, said Dr. Promila
Gupta, the hospital's medical superintendent. "I think what works for
our new guards is that the (patients') relatives are afraid of them
because of their good physique," she said.
Despite the tough image, Kumar and the other guards are a soft-spoken
bunch. "We don't let anyone in unless they need to be there, and we
know how to be polite about it," he said.
"First we talk nice," said bouncer Amarjeet Singh. "If they don't
listen, troublemakers are taken to the Casualty Medical Officer's room
to sort things out, and if that doesn't work, police from the nearby
post are called in to get them evicted.
"In any case, we are not allowed to rough anyone up," he added.
Few hospitals can afford this kind of security. The generally
overcrowded and understaffed government facilities often don't even have
the resources they need to save lives, said Dr. Saini of the Indian
Medical Association.
Dr. Prithvi Madhok, a former surgeon at some of Mumbai's top
hospitals, has studied the rash of doctor assaults in India and said
hiring better security will not solve the underlying problem.
"As a society, we are just not trained to be patient. We don't wait
for our turn, or let things go through their due process," he said.
Bouncers in uniform stand guard at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.(AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
Madhok said patients or their attendants turn violent because they
think they can get away with it. Attacking a doctor might be a serious
crime, "but in my several years of practice, I have never seen anyone
get booked for it," he said.
Seth, the DDU doctor, is glad that the new guards are serving as a deterrent.
"These guys save lives too," he said. "Just as doctors here are
always ready to save a patient, these bouncers are here to save us
doctors."
Source:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/delhi-hospital-takes-safety-shot-hires-bouncers/article1-927400.aspx
