GADAG: A 46-year-old man who claimed to be the president of zilla panchayat recently threatened to burn down a private hospital in Gadag town if it did not ‘immediately’ shift a Covid patient to the district hospital.
When it learnt that he was an imposter and not related to the patient, the hospital handed him a unique punishment: Wear a PPE kit and work in Covid ward for a week.
Dr Pavankumar Patil of Dr NB Patil Hospital in Gadag told TOI that a woman aged about 60 was admitted to the hospital in early June following complaints of breathlessness.
“She responded well to our treatment.
At that time, a man from Naregal in Ron taluk of the district made a call to our landline number on June 5, calling himself the ZP president.
Out of the blue, he demanded that the woman patient be ‘immediately’ shifted to the Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS),” he said.
Gadag town is about 400km from Bengaluru.
A hospital staffer who attended the call told him to first check bed availability at GIMS.
The caller flew into a rage and allegedly threatened to get the hospital ransacked and set ablaze with help from rowdies.
Doc drove ambulanceWith no driver in sight and not ready to take chances, Dr Patil drove the ambulance to GIMS along with the woman patient and her attendant.
At GIMS, the doctor found neither the caller nor any of his associates.
After a fruitless wait, the patient’s attendant requested the doctor to drive them back to the hospital.
Later in the day, they filed a complaint at the town police station.
Police registered it as a non-cognizable case and summoned the accused for the interrogation.
“The man approached us on June 6 and apologised for his act.
He made a strong plea that we withdraw the case.
To teach him a lesson, we asked him to wear a PPE kit and serve our hospital for a week.
He said ‘yes’, and never turned up,” Dr Patil said, adding they will pursue the case since he didn’t meet the demand.
Gadag superintendent of police Yathish N said he was unaware of the incident.
Sources from Gadag Town police station said an FIR has been registered against the person.