Docs: Despite CISF presence, internal security still a worry
Times of India | 23 August 2024
Kolkata: Doctors at R G Kar Medical College & Hospital hope the deployment of armed CISF personnel will prevent a repeat of the vandalism that the hospital witnessed in the early hours of Independence Day. But they say it is the hospital administration that has to take decisive steps to improve internal security and prevent a repeat of the rape and murder that has shaken the confidence of doctors, particularly resident and junior doctors and nurses on night duty.
Junior and resident doctors at RGKMCH said while CISF deployment would be a deterrent to flare-ups in emergency wards and invasion of the campus by outsiders, internal security that is managed by private security guards appointed by the hospital management would have to become much more effective to make the workplace safe for those who worked on night shift.
“In a hospital, patients and their relatives will have access to emergency wards in different departments at night. But one has to ensure that unauthorised people don’t venture into doctors’ rooms or wards situated on the same floor. Doctors have been voicing their concern over this since a mob thr-ashed two junior doctors — Paribaha Mukhopadhyay and Yash Tekwani — at NRS in 2019. Though an SOP was prepared here as well, it was not implemented earnestly,” said a doctor.
At RGKMCH, there are safety concerns in four departments — chest medicine, paediatric medicine, general medicine and eye. The first two are situated on the third and sixth floors of emergency building and are particularly vulnerable. “In the paediatric department, to reach the emergency, people have to cross the doctors’ room. In the general medicine department, the doctors’ room is in the middle of the ward with beds on either side. The layout needs to be changed to ensure emergency wards are segregated from the rest of the department,” another doctor said.
What is important, say junior doctors, is preparing an SOP for internal security and deputing private guards at key access points beyond emergency departments with strict instruction to allow access to only authorised people. They also suggested installation of emergency buttons in doctors’ rooms that could trigger immediate response from cops and CISF. On the night of vandalism, junior doctors had dialled a number circulated by Tala PS. But it allegedly didn’t function. They also said the app the state proposed was not the ideal solution as internet was weak in several spots.