Soon, all the State-run hospitals and dispensaries will have smart cameras inside their premises aimed at enhancing the security and safety of patients and doctors. For this, the State Health department has planned to outsource the installation, maintenance and management of the smart camera in hospitals by seeking Expression of Interest (EOI) from the reputed entities.
“The idea is to have the access control over prevention from thefts, monitoring of sensitive areas in the hospitals and safety of the doctors and patients,” said a senior official of Directorate of Health Services (DHS) official. “We have just proposed the
EOI and accordingly, the tenders will be floated in the coming days,” he said. The Delhi Government has proposed to install smart cameras for video surveillance, access control, prevention of theft, monitoring of sensitive areas etc and attendance of employees in the hospitals under their control.
The Delhi Government has 39 hospitals with 10,000 bed capacity and 260 dispensaries where about 30,000 medical staff are posted on duty. According to a DHS official, these hospitals record footfall of about 3.35 crore annually, which include 1.80 crore OPD patients, 6 lakhs indoor admissions and 30 lakh emergency patients who come with their relatives and attendants.
“Keeping the rush of patients in mind and also to keep the hospital administration under electronic surveillance, smart cameras are being installed at six key locations”, he added.
It may be noted that, earlier, resident doctors have raised the issue of safety and security threat in the hospital premises.