Riots or antisocial activities in a health care institution are a very serious situation not just because of the damage to property, but also because of the disruptive effect it has on the ongoing patient care activities.
These are generally, an expression of resentment by an aggrieved group of people further aggravated by the failure of grievance redressal mechanism in the hospital.
The causes can be many—death of a patient due to alleged negligence by staff, inflated hospital bills or rude/abusive behavior by staff. Due to instantaneous rage the irate mob may assault the staff or damage the hospital property such as window panes /doors or some equipment.
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The actions to be taken to prevent/control the situation are:
1. Inform the security office, declare code yellow and get maximum possible security and other staff on the scene as a show of strength as well as to control the agitated mob and prevent any further damages.
2. Call the police for immediate help.
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3. Try to pacify the mob and move them away from the scene of disturbance to a quiet room such as the office of the security officer or the MS office.
4. Make them sit down, offer them a glass of water and then establish contact with the senior most relative of the patient asking them what their grievances are. It is important to convince them of the sincerity of your intentions.
5. Assure them that their grievances will be sorted out to their satisfaction at the earliest by the personal intervention of the MS and they will be fully briefed about the facts of the case and the action taken.
6. If their grievance is about the payment of bills that can be and should be sorted out right away.
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7. If the grievance is about the death of their patient due to alleged negligence by the doctor, the doctor may be called and asked to explain his version in front of the relatives.
8. If the doctor’s version is not convincing to them and the MS feels necessary, he may ask the Medical Audit Committee or the Academic Committee or convene an ad-hoc committee to submit the report within 24 hours.
9. If the opposite party is still not convinced, they may be asked to exercise their choice of reporting the matter to police and making it a medico legal case.
They may also be cautioned that in that case the dead body will be subjected to postmortem examination by the police to ascertain the cause of death and that may take a couple of days. In majority of cases, they would not want to be involved with police.
10. As soon as the police arrive, they may be briefed fully about both the versions and also shown the damages caused to the hospital property and a complaint lodged with police.
11. All these actions should generally be enough to pacify the irate mob and control the situation. However, the matter must be investigated and the MS must call and brief the opposite party about the impartial findings of the committee.