Risk factor: Civil Hospital in Gurugram functioning without security guard for over a month

The Civil Hospital in Sector 10 has been functioning without a single security guard for over a month now.

According to hospital authorities, all of the eight sanctioned posts for security personnel have been lying vacant since June 30, the day the contract with a private security firm expired. The contract hasn’t been renewed since. “We have sent multiple requests to the state government for deploying security guards within the hospital premises. We have also floated a tender for providing the guards. It has been sent to the directorate general of health services, but there has been no response yet,” said Dr Jai Bhagwan Jatain, the hospital’s principal medical officer. The directorate did not respond to a request for a comment despite several calls and texts being made.

Jatain added that the presence of security personnel in the hospital’s sensitive wards such as the labour room, the emergency room, the out-patient department and the gynaecology department is important.

Hospital staff alleged that in the absence of security personnel, patients say they have to worry about their belongings. The medical staff too faces a security risk, as there have been instances of vandalism at the hospital by patients’ kin in the past. In February this year, family members of a 78-year-old cancer patient allegedly vandalised the hospital, accusing its authorities of asking for a bribe for treatment. Last year, the family of a 35-year-old woman had allegedly attempted vandalism after she died giving birth.

Hospital authorities said that the lack of security at the hospital leads to random people entering the premises at night. “There is no one to look after the hospital at night. It is as if the hospital has been left to its fate,” said Jatain.

Patients admitted to the hospital are also suffering due to inadequate security. One of the relatives of a patient said that since there is no security, they have to stay up the whole night to keep a check on their belongings. “We have to ward off the stray dogs that roam on the premises at night,” he said.