Criminals in disguise: Patients, attendants at THQ hospital robbed

Four men enter the general ward pretending to be dispensers.

FAISALABAD:

Some patients and their visitors were robbed by unidentified men in the tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital in Jaranwala on Wednesday.

The Jaranwala station house officer said that four men entered the general ward of the hospital in the middle of the night disguised as hospital dispensers. He said the men gave some patients sedatives, saying it was their daily medicine dose. They also gave drugged tea to the attendants.

The SHO said that the patients and their attendants fainted a few minutes later and the men took away their cash, mobile phones and other valuables.

He said by the time the hospital staff on duty at the ward realised what had happened, the men had fled.

Muhammad Akram told The Express Tribune that he had gone to visit his cousin, Naseer, at the hospital. He said at around 2:30am, four men entered the ward and started giving medicines to the patients.

“One of them offered us tea and we accepted. Then they started chatting with us,” he said.

He said he woke up to find the hospital management in the room, asking some patients questions. He said some of the attendants were still unconscious. He said all their belongings were missing.

The patients and their families protested against the hospital administration saying that the men were able to enter the hospital without any check due to the administration’s negligence.

They questioned the presence of the duty nurse and accused the hospital staff of abetting the thieves.

A case was registered against unidentified men at Jaranwala police station.

The THQ medical superintendent denied the allegations. He said the duty nurse was called to another ward for some time.

He said there was a lack of hospital staff and so most of the nurses were required to work at more than two wards simultaneously.

He speculated that the men had visited the ward several times to learn about its working.

He said police had been informed and the suspects were being looked for.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2012.