When Care Turns Confrontational: Documented Cases of Doctors Accused of Assaulting Patients

While healthcare settings are designed to provide care and safety, documented cases from India and abroad indicate that allegations of doctors physically assaulting patients, though uncommon do occur and are subject to legal and professional scrutiny. +

The recent suspension of Dr. Raghav Narula, a senior resident at Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMC), Shimla, following a widely circulated video showing him allegedly assaulting a patient inside a hospital ward, has once again drawn attention to incidents where clinical encounters escalate into physical confrontation.

A factual overview of several such reported incidents is mentioned here, examining the circumstances involved and the institutional responses that followed.

At a district hospital in Siliguri, a government doctor was accused by a patient’s family of slapping the patient during treatment.

The patient, Mou Mandal as reported by Siliguri Times, had come in for breathing problems and was sent back by the doctor initially, but admitted to an observation ward after her condition worsened. Family members alleged that the doctor's behavior was harsh and that he slapped the patient.

Both police and hospital authorities launched an investigation into the alleged conduct. The doctor denied the slapping allegation.

In an old case in Australia from 2019, star neurosurgeon Charlie Teo was cited in disciplinary proceedings for an incident in which he slapped a patient after surgery, who was reportedly unconscious, according to testimony heard at an inquiry into his professional conduct. The act was described as an attempt to rouse the patient following surgery but was characterised by expert witnesses as “totally unacceptable” and comparable to assault. This episode was part of broader professional standards hearings concerning multiple aspects of Teo’s practice.

In October 2023, a junior doctor at Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Indore, Madhya Pradesh was suspended after a video circulated showing him repeatedly slapping a 45-year-old patient lying on a gurney, who had been admitted following a road accident and was later found to be HIV-positive. The doctor, identified as Dr Akash Kaushal, allegedly reacted after learning of the patient’s HIV status and reportedly also berated the patient’s relatives when they intervened. In response, hospital authorities immediately suspended him from duties pending a formal investigation by a three-member panel.

In China’s Guigang, a southwestern Chinese city, a video of a doctor striking a patient on head during an operation in the eye drew widespread attention and official response. The footage showed a clinician repeatedly hitting an 82-year-old woman during the operation when she moved her head due to some interactions with the anesthesia. Hospital's parent group, Aier China suspended the doctor and dismissed the CEO of the hospital for failing to report the incident, after the video went viral in 2023. The incident had happened around December 2019. The patient allegedly could not understand Mandarin the doctor was speaking since she used a local dialect.

Physical assaults in healthcare settings, whether by medical professionals on patients, or by patients/attendants against healthcare workers, raise important questions about professional conduct, safety protocols in clinical environments. Healthcare institutions often initiate internal inquiries, disciplinary action, or police investigations where allegations are substantiated.

Medical professionals are bound by ethical standards and clinical codes of conduct, which emphasise non-maleficence (“do no harm”) and respectful patient interaction as core clinical principles. Unusual or violent conduct typically triggers administrative and legal review processes in most jurisdictions.