Security loopholes threaten public hospitals

35 cases of theft are reported across three public hospitals each month

KARACHI:

Families of patients making endless rounds to a hospital rarely find the time to keep check of their personal belongings however, as meagre security arrangements across major public hospitals in the port city allow suspicious persons to enter unchecked into the healthcare facilities, many distressed families will have to monitor the whereabouts of their bags alongside the health of their sick loved ones.

Even though public hospitals receive a sizeable annual budget of tens of millions of rupees from the government for ensuring the presence of adequate security personnel at the facilities, the entrances and exits of nearly all government hospitals in Sindh, including Karachi, are unsafe, with no body scanners installed at entrances and little or no security arrangements in place after dark, allowing the movement and activity of potential pickpockets on the premises of the facility.

"I was sleeping in front of the ward at night when unidentified persons stole my bag containing Rs3,000. I could not report the incident to the police because we were preoccupied with the health of our patient, but the theft was reported to the security authorities of the hospital,” shared Razzaq, the attendant of a patient admitted to the orthopaedic ward of the Jinnah Hospital.

Similarly, Rubina, the mother of another patient admitted at the Civil Hospital conveyed her concerns with the security arrangements at the hospital. “During the night hours, many drug addicts come to sleep in the hospital since there is no token system for identifying the attendants of patients. While I was in queue to get my meal, someone sneakily stole my wallet, which carried Rs2,000. It is not easy for a woman to go to the police and get justice,” scoffed Rubina.

According to Atta Qureshi, a security expert and retired police officer, the security arrangements across all government hospitals in the city were direly insufficient. “There is no identification system at the entry and exit points. No one knows whose entering or exiting the hospital premises. Hospitals must devise a system of registering attendants and checking vehicles alongside installing walk-through metal detectors. If this is not taken care of, there is a possibility of an unpleasant incident happening,” warned Qureshi.

Read: Karachi hospitals face serious staff shortage

Qureshi’s premonitions were supported by data obtained from the Jinnah, Civil and Abbassi Shaheed hospitals, which indicated that at least 35 cases of theft were reported to the administrations of the three major public hospitals each month.

“The movement of unrelated people into the hospital lasts from evening to morning because free food is provided to the patients by a welfare organization within the hospital premises after 7pm. As a result, irrelevant people have made it a routine to eat daily and sleep at night outside the wards,” said Dr Muhammad Salman, Deputy Joint Executive Director at the Jinnah Hospital, which has employed a total of 180 guards.

Similarly, Dr Khalid Bukhari, Medical Superintendent at the Civil Hospital revealed that a total of 8000 people entered the hospital on a daily basis out of which many were neither patients nor attendants. “Most of these are drug addicts who sleep on the sidewalks of the hospital at night,” claimed Dr Bukhari.

Speaking to the Express Tribune on the matter, the NICVD Administrator, Dr Tariq Shaikh conceded that there was no system to check the entry of unrelated persons, who are stopped only on the basis of suspicion. “The number of private security guards in our hospital is 50 while the number of hospital employee security guards is 27, with each private guard receiving Rs30,000. Although we issue cards to the caregivers of the patients being treated in the hospital, it is impossible to identify all of the unrelated persons who come to the hospital since more than 3,000 patients are reported daily in the hospital,” said Dr Sheikh.