Safdarjung hospital under CCTV surveillance

Safdarjung Hospital has become the first government hospital in the city to have closed-circuit television camera surveillance of its premises to thwart possible terror attacks and criminal activities.

Safdarjung Hospital has become the first government hospital in the city to have closed-circuit television camera surveillance of its premises to thwart possible terror attacks and criminal activities.

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150 CCTV cameras have been installed in the wards, out patients department, operation theatre and other areas of the hospital. One monitoring panel has been put up in the medical superintendent's room and a second at another place.

"We have installed a total of 150 CCTV cameras in different areas inside the hospital premises. These got functional from June 1 and we are the first to have it. The objective behind installing them is to have better surveillance and monitoring of the activities happening in the hospital and keep a constant tab on the the flow of patients," medical superintendent Dr N K Mohanty said.

"Complains of theft of children, rape and various other incidents have come due to security lapses. With these cameras these problems will be addressed well. The cameras will also help identify the culprits if any such incident takes place."

An expenditure of Rs 4.5 crore has been incurred by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for installing the CCTV cameras here. These have also been installed in casualty department and parking place among other areas.

The medical superintendent also said the CCTV cameras were used to monitor activities of medical students recently when they had called for an indefinite strike in the hospital.

Mohanty said, "I was monitoring the activities of the students sitting in my room, when they called for the indefinite strike. One of the students alleged that the police had manhandled them. When we checked with the recording, we found that the student had lied."