Mumbai: BMC hospitals to have enhanced security cover

What was meant to be a police chowkie on the premises of Rajawadi Hospital is today a TB OPD

If everything goes well, all BMC hospitals in the city will have enhanced security cover, soon. At present most of the peripheral hospitals have inadequate security personnel roped in from BMC, Maharashtra Security Service Corporation (MSSC) and a private security agency.

Dr Neelam Andrade, director, medical education and major hospitals of BMC, said, "We have decided to enhance the security across all major and peripheral hospitals, the BMC Chief Security Officer (CSO) is in the process of making required Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and have given instructions to conduct orientation program for the existing security personnel (BMC, MSSC and private security guards) deployed at hospitals in crowd management. We have adequate security numbers, just relocation, reorganization n SOPs n orientation needed."

As some of the security personnel deployed in BMC hospitals are untrained in mob handling, the chief security officer of BMC has been now asked to come up with a special orientation course on mob handling and plan SOPs to thwart incidents of assault on doctors.

Meanwhile, MSSC has agreed to the BMC's request to provide an additional 2,500 security guards. Once the contract is ready, it is likely that MSSC may provide the security guards to BMC by December this year.

MSSC guards trained by SRPF

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Bipin Kumar Singh, director general of police and managing director, MSSC, "At present MSSC is providing 401 security personnel to BMC and we have a total staff strength of approximately 18,000, who are trained by State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) in crowd management and other aspects of policing. We have got an additional request for 2,500 additional security guards by BMC and they will be provided once we enter into the contract, which is expected by December 2024. It is up to BMC, where and how they want to use this additional manpower."

Singh said that continuous on-the-job training is integral to uniform service and MSSC guards are not exception. "The MSSC guards are trained by police personnel in the specialised task of crowd management and control. Crowd control becomes more challenging in hospitals where emotions and tempers of relatives are always on the rise. This requires tactful handling of situations rather than use of force. The MSSC security guards play the role of the protector for the doctors, staff and hospital property. But at times, we too faced extreme situations, but overall, our boys have been able to deliver better, and they have scope for doing much more," said Singh.

When contacted a senior BMC security officer said, "We are reviewing the security arrangements at four major hospitals - KEM, Nair, LTMG, and Cooper. The security department will soon along with deans and MARD representatives, will take a round and review the security arrangements in respective hospitals. At present KEM hospital has 283 round-the-clock security guards and 520 active CCTV cameras installed, LTMG Sion has 247 security guards and 527 CCTV cameras, BYL Nair Hospital has 189 security guards and 175 CCTV cameras (200 cameras to be connected soon) and Cooper has 212 security guards and 494 CCTV cameras, each being monitored round the clock. And once we get the final review, the same will be analysed and a report submitted to our higher authorities for approval."

Attack on doctors cannot be justified

"We can understand the emotional outbreak, but it doesn't allow anyone to raise hands and abuse the doctor and the staff. Most of the peripheral hospitals do not have adequate manpower and with contractual ward boys and nurses being hired, they are adept at handling large patient turnout. The situation becomes grim when we suddenly realise that there are hardly any trained security personnel around us, especially during night hours," said a doctor attached to a peripheral hospital.

A police beat chowkie is now a TB OPD

Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar East which is one of the busiest peripheral hospitals catering patients from Mulund to Kurla on Central line and Mankhurd to Kurla on harbour line including railway accidents, had witnessed some of the worst attacks on doctors and hospital staff in the last few years. The situation was so alarming that unruly mobs from these pockets would vandalise the hospital and even attack the doctors. And with the objective to provide immediate police assistance, the then additional police commissioner East Region Gulabrao Pol, agreed to have a police beat chowkie within the hospital premises, which unfortunately never became functional. Today, the beat chowkie is converted into a TB OPD, recalled a retired doctor who had worked in Rajawadi Hospital.

"Had the police chowkie been functional inside the hospital, we would have had more crowd inside the hospital, as even outsiders would start visiting the police chowkie for making complaints. Even today, we have space outside the hospital, near Rajawadi Garden area, where a police chowkie can be made, and will be a deterrent for roadside urchins and drug addicts, loitering around during night hours," said another doctor.

Huge turnout of patients

Rajawadi Hospital is the nearest and affordable go-to hospital for the patients belonging to the lower middle-class families and the poorest section of the society residing in slums, chawl pockets of Mulund, Bhandup, Vikhroli, Ghatkopar, Mankhurd, Chembur, RCF, Govandi, etc., and due to its demographic set up, the inflow of patients are on the higher side.

"At present, the daily inflow of patients in OPD is over a thousand plus due to monsoon ailments, and an additional approximate 400 to 500 patients visiting the round the clock causality / emergency ward which mostly witnesses cases of road accident, assault and suicidal attempt cases other than mass casualty and other Medico Legal cases. The 590-bed civic hospital has around 51 Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU), NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and Paediatric ward. The ground plus two floors of the OPD building may have one or two security guards, which makes it impossible to tackle large crowds, as everyone wants the doctor to attend to them first," said a hospital insider.

Demand for additional security

Dr Bharati Rajulwala, medical superintendent at Rajawadi Hospital said, "At present we have around 36 security personnel of which 10 are private guards. We have demanded for additional 30 plus security personnel, as we are expanding some of our sensitive departments such as ICU, doctors' hostel, new structure that will be functional soon, etc. We already have the system of issuing visitor passes for relatives of patients, CCTV cameras installed, but at times, physical presence of security guards in and around the sensitive wards is a must to avert any untoward incident."

The other side

When asked about the peripheral hospital security enhancement, the officer said, "We will be reviewing the peripheral hospitals security once the major hospitals are covered. We are aware that Rajawadi hospital is a sensitive peripheral hospital and hence we have deployed a security officer to man the security at Rajawadi."

And on training the private security for mob handling, the officer clarified, that our tie up with the private security agency is since 2012 and one of the conditions in our tender is that the agency need to provide all required trainings including mob control to their guards at regular intervals and as per our information, they are trained to handle mob.

Recent incidents

A female resident doctor attached to LTMG Hospital at Sion was assaulted by a drunk patient and his family member on August 18.

On the intervening night of July 28-29, an ICU doctor on deputation from KEM Hospital to Rajawadi Hospital was assaulted by relatives of a patient who had died. The relatives including the daughter of the deceased turned hysterical and assaulted the doctor, who sustained head injury and had to be admitted.

The Tilak Nagar police were informed and police registered the FIR. Though the doctor has returned to KEM, Rajawadi Hospital doctors and staff are concerned about their safety.