During a visit to the SSKM Hospital on Saturday, state Home Secretary Ardhendu Sen held a meeting with senior police officers and health department officials to sketch the security needs. The state government plans to have armed guards to man the wards of some premier city hospitals.

“There are various proposals to upgrade the security system of state-run hospitals. One of these is to place armed guards or policemen at the various wards,” said SSKM medical superintendent Professor Ashok Kumar Ghosh.

“At present, there is a police outpost in each hospital,” Ghosh said. “The private security guards posted there, however, do not even have a baton. In case there is a terrorist attack, the patients and the staff in the hospital will be easy targets. Therefore, we had sent a proposal for placing armed guards in hospital wards.”

The meeting also discussed the possibility of upgrading the police strength in hospitals, each of which, at present, has four constables and a sub-inspector on duty. The state government plans a three-fold increase of manpower of police outposts, said Ghosh. Medical colleges and hospitals are vast and spread over a number of buildings and departments. “A handful of policemen are not enough,” he said.

The government has installed closed-circuit television cameras at all big hospitals. Seventeen such cameras were installed at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, 16 at the SSKM hospital, 14 at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, 16 at Nilratan Sarkar Medical College and Hospital and eight at the National Medical College and Hospital. The proposal for enhancing security assumes significance as with over 3,000 people visiting the medical college hospitals almost every day, they are potentially soft targets for terror strikes.