New Delhi: Keeping in mind the Kolkata doctor rape and murder case, Chief Security Officers will be appointed in all the medical colleges and hospitals of the country. They will be primarily responsible for the safety of the health workers working there. Along with this, police verification of the employees working on contract in hospitals and medical colleges will be made mandatory.

On the instructions of the Supreme Court, many such decisions were taken in a virtual meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan and Health Secretary Apoorva Chandra with the Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of the states. A senior Health Ministry official said that these decisions will help in immediate improvement in the security situation of medical colleges and hospitals.

The National Task Force is considering long-term measures for permanent security and taking suggestions from all stakeholders. In the meeting, it was decided to conduct a joint security audit of all district hospitals and medical colleges by the DM and SP, in which the Dean or Director of the concerned institute will also be included.

Along with this, police will be deployed in big medical colleges and hospitals and patrolling will be ensured especially at night. States decided to review and strengthen the CCTV network of all medical colleges and hospitals. CCTV footage will be monitored from the control room and will be stored in cloud storage so that no one can delete it.

Helpline number 112 for health workers

State governments will soon identify dark zones in these institutions and make arrangements to install lights there. The meeting discussed making the services of helpline number 112, which is being run for the help of the general public, available to health workers as well and most states were ready for this.

Security escort from hospital to hostel

Not only this, the states also agreed to regulate the working hours of resident doctors and provide security escort to female doctors when travelling from hospital to hostel at night.

The central government directed the states to strictly follow the laws made for the safety of health workers. So far, 26 states have made special laws for the safety of health workers.