Lethem hospital nurses say spouse of medical official verbally abusing them

Nurses attached to the Lethem Regional Hospital are asking for health authorities to intervene as they say they are constantly being verbally abused by the spouse of a medical official.

According to one of the nurses, who did not want to be named, on Tuesday afternoon, the husband of a medical official barged into the hospital and started shouting indecent words at them while hitting on the door of one of the wards in the hospital. The nurse said the episode scared both hospital staff and patients alike.

She said as soon as the man entered the compound, he started shouting and then he barged into the hospital. However, she stated that his actions were not surprising because it was not the first time he had done so and no one seems to be taking steps to address the situation.

“He started using indecent language and started yelling, ‘This thing have to stop! I’ll put a stopping to it!’ …But he didn’t say what he was going to do or anything,” the nurse stated before explaining that the incident stemmed from a minor issue between the nurses and the wife of the man.

The nurse explained that whenever there is a minor issue between the nurses and the medical official, the spouse would appear the next day to shout indecent words at them. She said senior authorities are aware of the situation but since the last incident nothing has been done.

“This happens occasionally and as a nurse I do not know how to feel, I got scared of his behaviour and it was uncalled for and very unprofessional and it really reflected badly on the hospital on a whole and on the nurses because when he started shouting up at us, the patients got very scared. We had to keep reassuring them that nothing was wrong but they were scared because he was shouting up very loud,” the nurse explained.

“We are feeling scared and not optimistic about our work and knowing that it’s the medical official who is supposed to be protecting us is worse and we feel all our information that we divulge to her is not confidential anymore because the husband knows everything that is going on. So here we are still very sacred even though the incident happened yesterday. The atmosphere here is very depressing and there is no excitement when we go to work because we have to come into work in an environment like this. And it is not good for a patient health,” she added.

She said that nurses hope that the relevant officials will intervene and the situation will be addressed promptly before the situation escalates.