The Hindu : Front Page : A secret eye now over major hospitals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 23, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

A secret eye now over major hospitals

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

A CLOSE LOOK: Dr. N. K. Chaturvedi, Medical Superintendent of Lohia Hospital in Delhi, monitoring the goings-on in the institution over CCTV. - PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT

NEW DELHI: To keep a watchful eye over the working of Central Government-run hospitals across the Capital, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has instructed them to equip themselves with closed-circuit television cameras.

The order covers Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College and associated hospitals, and they will all be monitored round the clock. Being installed in the wake of a sharp increase in the number of mishaps relating to women in Delhi's hospitals, the experiment -- now being test-run here in the Capital -- will subsequently be replicated in all major hospitals across the country. "There is a growing concern about the security of women patients and their attendants in hospitals. And this prompted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with help from the Delhi police to zero in on the sensitive zones and cover them in the first phase of this major exercise,'' explains Union Health and Family Welfare Secretary P. K. Hota.

The hospitals have been instructed to bring under the security cover all

their departments including Emergency, Casualty and the wards. The CCTVs in each hospital will be monitored by the Medical Superintendent, Additional Medical Superintendent and the heads of various departments, who would be allowed to supervise the security and working of their units.

First put to test at Lohia Hospital here last year, the CCTVs network is expected to enable round-the-clock surveillance and act as an early warning system in case of fights or any other untoward incident.

"When we began with our CCTV project, we installed only 10 camera to keep a check on activities at the hospital. This was done at a cost of Rs. 5 lakhs. We have now been directed by the Health Ministry to go in for major expansion and facilitate monitoring of the entire hospital.

Under the second phase -- that will cost the hospital Rs. 44 lakhs and will be completed in six months -- we will be placing cameras in not just areas that need constant monitoring but the entire hospital,'' says the Medical Superintendent of Lohia Hospital, Dr. N. K. Chaturvedi.

Speaking about their blueprint to include CCTVs as part of their security and daily monitoring system, an official at Safdarjung Hospital explains: "Last year after an incident of rape in our hospital the police asked all major hospitals to put in place a surveillance system that would help to protect patients and doctors. The police also assisted us in identifying the vulnerable areas that we hope to cover in the first phase. The Central Public Works Department has started the tendering process and the entire work will be completed in the next three months.''

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