JD(U) MLA, doctor spar over treatment of minor bomb blast victims in Bihar hospital

PATNA: Heated exchange was witnessed between Janata Dal (United) MLA Rajkumar Singh and a doctor in the Sadar hospital in Bihar's Begusarai after the latter refused to attend to the minor victims of a bomb blast.

The blast had occurred on Wednesday evening. Six children sustained burn injuries after a bomb exploded while playing in an abandoned house in Begusarai on November 28.

Rajkumar Singh, the JD(U) MLA from the Matihani Assembly constituency visited the Sadar hospital on Wednesday evening to check on the injured children. The family members of the children complained to the MLA about the 'negligent' attitude of the doctors.

When Rajkumar Singh inquired with Dr Chandan Kumar, the in charge of the Burns Ward, he did not give a proper reply. Irked by this behaviour, Singh lost cool and slammed the doctor and also called the district civil surgeon on the phone. He told the civil surgeon that the doctor sitting in the Burns Ward was "doing extortion here and not treating the patients".

A video of the heated exchange between Rajkumar Singh and Dr Chandan Kumar went viral on social media.

In the video, Rajkumar Singh asks Dr Chandan Kumar to provide proper treatment to the patients, and tells him that he is giving an excuse that the child specialist doctor is not there due to which he is unable to provide treatment to them. He informs the MLA that he is not on duty there.

Rajkumar Singh tells the doctor that "when you do not have duty here then why are you present here. You would see patients after their death."

Dr Chandan Kumar again replies, "You should call the pediatricians. It is not my duty."

This angers Rajkumar Singh and he says: “Are you sick?”

Dr Kumar again replied that "Yes, I am sick".

Then the MLA threatens him. “I will do your treatment. I will remove you from your job. Where is your house, Munger? You came here from Munger to do Rangdari (extortion) here,” Raj Kumar Singh says in the viral video.

Later, when asked, Dr Rahul Kumar, a medical officer of Sadar hospital Begusarai said: “Dr Chandan Kumar is a doctor of general ward and he is not a 'Bahubali'. He is a good doctor here and not involved in any kind of negligence.”