Newborn’s theft case: Report blames security lapse

Rules out involvement of PIMS staff in the incident.

ISLAMABAD: An inquiry report has pointed out security lapse as the reason for the newborn baby’s theft from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims). The initial report blames “outsiders’ not the hospital staff for the incident.

“Inadequate security and vigilance procedures at the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) centre contribute to such incidents,” says the report.

“It appears to be a planned crime carried out by a group of criminals who are not part of the hospital staff”, says the report which was sent to the Islamabad Chief Commissioner, the Inspector General (IG) Islamabad Police and the Capital Administration Development Division on Wednesday.

The newborn was stolen from MNCH centre of the hospital on January 10.

“However, some of the loopholes have now been addressed by the hospital administration but the provision of adequate staff, beds and financial resources is beyond the scope of the hospital in the immediate future,” it says.

The seven-member committee which conducted the inquiry recommends close coordination between the policy-makers and the hospital administration to address the resource shortage to prevent such incidents in the future.

It says that the family must also be blamed for trusting a stranger and letting her to handle their baby in the first place.

On the other hand, Shazia Zia, the mother of the baby boy, refused to be discharged from the hospital till she got back her baby.

She claimed that even after the incident the security of the centre remained the same as, according to her, no improvement in terms of security has been put in place.

She also claimed that a nurse, named Azra, who was on duty when the incident happened, also took her medical file and later when it was recovered one of its pages was torn.

ASI Amir Khan at the Margalla Police Station said the parents were equally responsible for the incident as they trusted a stranger.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2015.