BMC team to review security in hospitals
It will install hi-tech biometric and vein-tracking system in hospitals.
After a spate of child-theft incidents from civic hospitals, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has formed a team to review the security arrangements in hospitals.
The city has three major hospitals - KEM, Nair and Sion - and 16 periphery hospitals.
It will install hi-tech biometric and vein-tracking system in hospitals.
The special vein imaging system will be the first of its kind in the country. It captures images of the newborn's vein formation and the mother's thumb impression and tallies them while they are discharged. The mother and baby are discharged only if their characteristics match the recorded images.
The system was installed in the civic-run Sion hospital after a new born baby of Mohan and Mohini Nerurkar was stolen from the hospital in 2008.
The BMC will replicate the system in all hospitals.
"The system has helped crack a baby swapping case in Sion hospital and we will install the same system in other hospitals," said Standing Committee chairman, Rahul Shewale.
"The system can also scan the iris so it will help us keep records of burqa-clad women who come to the hospitals," said a senior civic official.
A team has been set up to plug the loopholes in the existing security set-up.
Civic officials said that after the incident, the BMC will review the CCTVs in all hospitals and will check their status and see if more CCTVs are needed.
The team, under the security officer of the BMC, will survey the hospitals to check whether if the CCTVs are in place and if they have been damaged them will be replaced and newer ones will be installed.
"We will inspect all hospitals to check the working of all CCTVs," said another security officer.
Six hundred posts of security personnel for the hospitals are still vacant.
"We have all the sanctions and will fill up these posts soon," said SV Kulkarni, Chief Security Officer.
A total of 550 security personnel posts were filled up in 2008.