Drunken interns arrested from Bir BY SANGEETA RIJAL KATHMANDU, May 19 - Police arrested four drunken intern doctors from Bir Hospital early Friday morning, after the latter attacked other medical staff and disrupted services at the emergency ward. Dhak Bahadur Karki, Chief of Metropolitan Police Range Office, Hanumandhoka, said the rampaging interns will be punished under the public offence act and remain for seven days in custody. Dr Bishesh Sitaula, Dr Shivaji Bikram Silwal, Dr Prasanta Adhikari and Dr K I Singh KC were arrested from the hospital emergency ward after they started beating up doctors and other staff on duty and throwing furniture at them. They came to the hospital drunk at midnight Thursday and started threatening other doctors, guards and others for running the ward despite a banda call. Following an incident on May 16 in which a doctor was allegedly attacked at the emergency ward by a patient's relative, doctors at the hospital had decided to halt all services, including emergency, and asked the hospital management to ensure pay for interns. The emergency service had been disrupted by the strike called by doctors right from 9 am on Thursday. However, after initiatives taken by police and the hospital management, the emergency ward had resumed normal service at about 7 pm. After coming to know about this, the four drunken doctors tried to halt emergency services. As the dispute remained unsettled at 3 am on Friday, mobile police took the four doctors into control. They are being detained at Hanumandhoka. Before their arrest, the drunk doctors were also beaten up by taxi drivers and people from pharmaceutical shops who had gathered at the site after the situation worsened and a scuffle took place between the drunken foursome and hospital staff at emergency. The emergency ward is adjacent to the Mahabouddha road, and taxis often queue up right in front of the emergency gate. "Some of our friends have sustained minor injuries due to manhandling by the four doctors," one of the ward doctors, who did not want to be named, told the Post. He also said the hospital will have to kick those doctors out of the service. If that is not done, other doctors and staff, who were attacked by them, would call a strike. However, none of the administrative officials at the hospital were available for comment on the incident. The hospital management had called an urgent meeting following the incident. The government banned strikes in 15 essential services including hospitals, health centers and services related to the pharmaceuticals sector. A notice to this effect was published in the Nepal Gazette on April 16, 2007. Just a few days back Bir Hospital's services had been disrupted after resident doctors stopped work for about a week because of the lack of anesthetists. Posted on: 2007-05-18 19:17:30 (Server Time)