With an aim to enhance crowd management at the maternity ward of Government Rajaji hospital here, the administration of the hospital has proposed to introduce a bar code wristband system.
According to B. Santhakumar, Dean, GRH the management is presently assessing the procurement cost of bar coded wristbands that will be issued to the visitors, patients and their infants, during their stay, in order to prevent theft of infants.
In addition, the authorities are taking initiatives to weed out corruption at the ward by deploying of woman police. The move comes in the wake of the suspension of three lower-level staff working at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward on charges of corruption and extorting money from patients. “We have been constantly getting complaints about hospital workers demanding money from attendants of patients after the baby is delivered,” said B. Santhakumar, Dean, GRH.
“We decided to take action and make this case an example. It will serve as a strict warning to other workers in government hospitals,” he added.
It is the first time that the administration had placed under suspension permanent staff in the department in recent times.
According to GRH sources, it is customary for the sanitary staff at the hospital to collect money from the family members after delivery of the baby.
The anxious kin also pay them bribe, despite the availability of public address systems such as a digital display and white boards to announce the birth of new born babies.
Regardless of the banners put up at several vantage points carrying mobile numbers of the Dean and Medical Superintendent at the hospital to lodge corruption related complaints, we only receive about 3 to 5 calls a day, where complainants refuse to give the complaint in writing, said a senior doctor.
On the issue of security shortage, the dean said that they are planning to take up the issue with the police department seeking additional security especially woman police exclusively for the labour ward.
