More and more incidents of doctors in Kuwait ending up on hospital beds from being beaten up by relatives of patients highlights the need to afford better protection to the medical fraternity, and to implement stricter laws to curb this tendency.

Barely two days after the news of a doctor working at the prestigious Jaber Al-Ahmad Health Center in Surra being attacked by relatives of a Kuwaiti patient, comes reports of two Kuwaitis assaulting two doctors at the Jahra hospital.

In two separate incidents on Sunday morning the two doctors were man-handled by those who  believed that they were entitled to have priority over other patients.

In the first incident, the son of a Kuwaiti patient wanted the doctor to examine his father urgently ahead of other patients waiting in the queue. When the doctor requested him to wait for a while as he was examining other patients, the man became distraught and assault the doctor who is now undergoing treatment at the same hospital.

In the second incident, a doctor was attacked by his own colleague after he refused to examine the second doctor who insisted that he be examined ahead of the other patients waiting for their appointments.

Medical staff have been urging the authorities to provide them with better protection and for the adoption of tougher penalties on those who assault doctors and other medical personnel, Amendments to the law put forward by the Kuwait Medical Association and the Ministry of Health calls for punishment for anyone who assaults a doctor or his assistant to a three years imprisonment and KD5,000 fine, and six months imprisonment and KD1,000 fine for those who abuse medical staff with words or actions.

Currently the law only provides for six months in prison or a fine of up to KD500 for those convicted of assaulting a doctor on duty.

 


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