(COLOMBO) – A drunken specialist doctor attached to a Government hospital in Sri Lanka’s Deep South was arrested after he allegedly assaulted two minor staff members, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place at the sprawling Karapitiya Teaching Hospital in Galle some 72 kilometres south of the Sri Lankan commercial capital of Colombo.
The irate doctor is alleged to have assaulted the minor staff members because they had participated in a trade union action the previous day (Wednesday), police said.
The incident drew an angry response from minor health workers at the hospital who immediately resorted to a sudden stoppage of work.
The doctor who was also injured in the melee is currently receiving treatment at a private hospital under police protection.
On Tuesday thousands of patients were deprived of medical attention after minor staff at all Government hospitals staged a token strike to press home a demand of a Rs. 35,000 pay increase.
The strikers were angered that the doctors had been provided with such a pay increase and therefore they sought to be treated in the same manner.
The doctors had later blamed the minor staff for an unreasonable demand when the country was undergoing a serious financial crisis.
