AIIMS Delhi begins security audit amid doctors’ protests over safety concerns

The security audit will involve a comprehensive review of existing safety measures across AIIMS’s main and outreach campuses

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi announced on Wednesday that it has initiated a collaborative internal security audit to assess and improve safety measures across its campus. This decision follows widespread concerns among resident doctors after the rape and murder of a female resident doctor at RG Kar Hospital and Medical College in Kolkata on August 9.

Doctors and students of Lady Hardinge Medical College at a protest in Jantar Mantar. (Arvind Yadav/HT Photo)

In response to the heightened security concerns, AIIMS has formed two committees: a five-member committee to address immediate concerns raised by the doctors and a 15-member committee focused on enhancing overall security measures. Dr Puneet Kaur, head of the Department of Biophysics, will chair the 15-member security audit committee. The committee includes representatives from the Faculty Association of AIIMS (FAIIMS), Resident Doctors Association, Students Union, Nurses Union, and the Society of Young Scientists, among others.

The security audit will involve a comprehensive review of existing safety measures across AIIMS’s main and outreach campuses, including NCI Jhajjar in Haryana, NDDTC Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, and CRHSP Ballabgarh in Haryana. The committee is expected to conduct these inspections during both day and night to identify any gaps in security. The committee will then make recommendations for additional safety measures, which will be implemented as quickly as possible.

AIIMS director Dr. V Srinivas said the institution commits to the safety of all healthcare professionals. “The entire AIIMS family stands behind the cause of safety for all healthcare professionals at our premier hospital and across the country,” Dr Srinivas said. He also urged striking resident doctors to resume work in the interest of patient care. “As doctors, our supreme duty is also to ensure that patients visiting our portals do not go unattended,” Dr Srinivas said.

The strike by resident doctors, which began in the wake of the Kolkata incident, has led to the suspension of elective services in several government hospitals across the country for nearly 10 days. The doctors are demanding central legislation to protect healthcare workers from violence.

In response to the protests, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has directed its hospitals to conduct internal security audits and assess the need for additional security personnel.

“The ministry has met with heads of its hospitals and asked them to address security concerns of their staff. They have been asked to conduct an internal security audit to assess the additional requirement of security personnel to man the premises. If the requirement is for making use of CISF as is being done at the Delhi AIIMS then the hospitals have been conveyed the ministry is open to the idea,” said a senior official in the health ministry, requesting anonymity.