‘95% hosp upgrade over’, RG Kar races against time
Times of India | 15 October 2024
Kolkata: More than 95% work for infrastructure and security upgrade at all govt hospitals in Bengal, barring RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, had been completed, meeting the Oct 15 deadline that the state had committed before the Supreme Court, a senior state health department official said on Monday.
The work includes installation of more CCTV cameras and construction as well as upgrade of wash rooms and duty rooms.
State chief secretary Manoj Pant, in an email to junior doctors, shared a status report on Oct 11. In that mail, he said the state was installing 7,051 CCTV cameras and readying 893 new duty rooms and 778 wash rooms across hospitals. “Proper lights, alarm systems and biometric access control are being implemented... The govt has allocated over Rs 113 crore,” the document stated.
The official said the upgrade had been completed and technicians and PWD personnel were at work even on Monday night at state facilities to meet the deadline.
TOI on Monday found the upgrades were in place at all govt hospitals in Kolkata, barring RG Kar, which received permission from the CBI to start work only on Oct 12. “Of the 532 CCTV cameras planned to be installed at RG Kar, 462 were put up by Sunday and early-Tuesday. We hope to finish the work at the earliest as four teams are at work. We intend to build 71 new duty rooms and 82 new wash rooms but we got the permission from the CBI as recently as Oct 12,” said an RG Kar official. “It was on Monday that we got the permission to start work on the chest medicine ward in the building, barring the seminar room, the scene of the crime. We hope to finish in less than a month.”
TOI found separate teams of technicians walking around RG Kar, carrying, PTZ cameras, ladders and wires, installing them inside and outside buildings. “We have completed the security upgrade. Apart from the CISF and cops already deployed, we have increased the number of private security personnel. We had 212 private guards, we are now deploying 85 more. We will have a meeting with PWD, cops and other stakeholders,” said the official.
SSKM officials said they finished 95% of the upgrade. At NRS, all CCTV cameras have been installed and duty rooms upgraded, while at MCH, 95% CCTV cameras have been installed, 92% duty rooms built and 95% wash rooms ready.
A state official said 1,514 private guards, following police check and training, had been engaged. “A real-time bed availability and central referral system is set up. An online referral system will start at South 24 Parganas and Diamond Harbour on Tuesday and will be extended across all state facilities by Nov 1,” an official said.