The incident took place at the Civil Hospital Ambah on September 16, where Dr Aarti Dandotiya was on duty. A Madhya Pradesh doctor was filmed walking out on a patient’s family mid-argument, leading to accusations that she had refused to treat the injured patient.
Footage that has been widely circulated online shows some people surrounding the doctor as she sat at her table. One man, in a loud voice, asked her to check on the patient, which she apparently refused to do. Dr Dandotiya was then seen standing up and walking away as the argument escalated.
However, Ambah Block Medical Officer (BMO) Pramod Sharma said that the argument ensued after the patients had already been treated. The patient’s family later alleged that the doctor had refused treatment, according to an Indian Today report.
However, she walked away when the patients’ kin began to film her on their phones. The video shows the doctor leaving the room instead of escalating the argument. Even as the video led to backlash against the doctor from a section of the internet claiming that she refused to treat injured people, senior IPS officer Arun Bothra voiced his support for Dr Aarti Dandotiya. “Doctor’s duty is to treat patients, not to tolerate abuse and intimidation. When attendants aggressively confront a doctor and start filming her, walking away from an escalating situation is not ego. It is self-defence,” he wrote on X.
Sharma explained that three injured people had received treatment at the hospital two days earlier from Dr Aarti Dandotiya.
