The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) is set to introduce patient identification wristbands as part of the enhanced safety measures.
The hospital is introducing new safety measures to ensure the security of patients and staff.
After a safety audit conducted by a team of Coimbatore city police and Revenue Department officials, several suggestions were made to the hospital management to prevent unknown individuals from entering the premises, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
During the inspection, the team checked the status of basic safety measures such as police outposts, CCTV surveillance cameras, the number of private security guards, entry and exit points, and the condition of wards.
This was the second meeting discussing safety measures at the CMCH, with the first meeting taking place at the police Commissionerate following a sexual abuse attempt against a woman house surgeon on August 14.
The officials who participated in the inspection suggested implementing wristband identification for inpatients and providing entry passes for attendees to prevent unauthorised access to the hospital.
The police have agreed to provide round-the-clock monitoring, particularly in emergency and Obstetrics/Gynaecology (OG) wards to improve patient and staff safety.
How do wristbands help?
"Offering wristbands to the inpatients would prevent them from moving outside unnecessarily and it also increases the safety of the patients. As all wards are being monitored by private security guards they can identify the in-patients by their wristband and their attendees through the authorised attendee pass. Through this, unknown people would be prevented from entering the hospital. Additionally, we ask the private security guards to ensure access control from the gate itself and restrict public movement after the OP hour," said R Stalin, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Coimbatore City North).
He added, "220 CCTV cameras are working on the premises and we (police) have planned to install 27 additional cameras at the places where out-patients gather in the morning hours. These camera feeds would be monitored by the police at their outpost. Now we have given night patrol to the hospital campus and it will be continued," Stalin said.
"Additionally, the hospital management has been asked to allot a designated place or shelter to the attendees for their night stay. This week alone I went for night rounds frequently and noticed many attendees were wandering on the campus as they were not provided with a place to sleep," Stalin added.
Apart from the safety measures, the police have decided to train the private security guards at the CMCH to tackle the crisis and emergency. In the alleged sexual abuse attempt, house surgeons alleged that private security guards did not make an effort to catch the abuser and tried to suppress the issue when the incident happened on the night of August 14.
Also, a few more complaints were reported against the security guards regarding their behaviour and approach towards the public. Hence the Coimbatore city police have planned to train them, said sources.
