Board lands UP doctor in trouble

To the unconcerned passersby, it was just like any other ordinary board hanging outside the clinics of the doctors providing information to the patients.

But for some others it violated the Hippocratic Oath, which is supposed to set an ethical standard for all doctors.

The doctor, who had hanged the board outside his clinic in Moradabad town, about 350 kilometres from here, may not have imagined that it would land him in trouble one day.  A photo of the offending board has now been tagged on the social networking site Facebook and prompted the authorities to seek an explanation from the doctor.

Dr P K Khanna, a child specialist in Moradabad had hanged a board outside his clinic stating that no patients would be entertained between 10 pm and 7 am.

Everything was going all right until a man landed at his clinic well after 10 pm with his seriously sick child a few days back. As expected the doctor did not respond to the call bell though the former waited for hours, according to reports.

Anguished over the doctor’s  ‘insensitive’ , the distraught father took a photograph of the board and tagged it on Facebook.

Sharp reaction

The photograph evoked a sharp reaction across the country and thousands of comments were posted. All the comments were highly critical of the doctor and sought stern action against him, even debarring him from the medical profession.

Things turned for worse for the doctor when the comment reached the district magistrate of Moradabad on Thursday. The official immediately directed the chief medical officer to inquire into the matter.

The CMO has sought an explanation from the doctor. The doctor has however pleaded that he had not been keeping well for the past few days and hence was not in a position to examine patients during the time in question. “The board had been hung temporarily,” he says.

The doctor may escape punishment but his insensitivity has certainly made him a villain in the eyes of the common people.