In the wake of a sexual abuse attempt on a woman house surgeon at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), the hospital management started fixing dysfunctional CCTV cameras and planned to install additionally 100 cameras across the campus.
The Coimbatore city police have also extended their support by providing a night patrolling team to the hospital for the safety of the staff.
Meanwhile, to discuss the safety measures at CMCH, a meeting has been scheduled at City Police Commissionerate today (Monday, August 19), as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
The sexual abuse attempt was reported on Wednesday night, August 14, when a woman house surgeon went to park her vehicle at the parking lot next to the dean's office.
It was said that an unknown man taking advantage of poor lighting, flashed at her and tried to molest her.
The person who had managed to escape from the premises was then caught in the midnight while wandering on the hospital campus.
Racecourse police arrested him and in the interrogation, police found him as mentally unstable.
The incident was reported five days after the tragic rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor in Kolkata and coincidently it draws attention across the state of Tamil Nadu.
The house surgeons, doctors, medical students and staff raised concerns over the safety measures on the premises of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital.
Even in their nationwide strike on Saturday, August 17, the doctors across Tamil Nadu stressed the safety measures for them at all the hospitals, citing the two incidents.
In the wake of the issue, the Additional Chief Secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Department Supriya Sahu has instructed to conduct of a joint security audit at all government hospitals by the district collector, police officials and the health authorities of the hospitals.
Also, instructions have been given to repair the faulty CCTV cameras and entry gates, parking, and women staff places to be monitored by hospital security staff and with the local police team.
Based on these instructions, the safety measures beefed up at Coimbatore Medical College Hospital, according to the sources from the health department, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
A Nirmala, Dean of CMCH said there are around 270 CCTV cameras have been fixed in the hospital campus, and a few were found faulty. The repairing work is underway and additionally, they planned to fix 100 CCTV cameras to cover every corner of the hospital, especially the wards, pathways, and parking areas.
She said that the security audit meeting has been scheduled at the police Commissionerate on today, August 19. From the police side, they have assigned additional night patrolling to CMCH to prevent the intrusion of strangers.
"The police outpost at CMCH, attached to Racecourse police station works round the clock. However, we additionally deployed a night patrolling team due to the necessity in the night hours. Though the hospital has security staff, they did not monitor the stranger's movement properly. Many outsiders use the hospital premises during night hours for stay which is not to be encouraged. We would discuss these issues in the security audit meeting," said R Stalin, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Coimbatore North).
