Hospital security staff allegedly assaults Patient's Caregiver, Kerala health minister directs strict action

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala health minister Veena George ordered the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College officials to take strict action against a security staff, who had allegedly assaulted a caretaker in the hospital on Friday.

The Superintendent of the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thiruvananthapuram was directed to ensure that such cases of security staff attacking caregivers do not get repeated.

According to The Hindu, the security staff at the Hospital had assaulted a patient's caregiver in the hospital on Friday. The caregiver, who used to take care of his grandmother admitted to the hospital, was denied entry by the security staff even though he had reportedly had shown him the entry pass.

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When he questioned the guard on being denied entry, the latter abused him verbally and assaulted him after dragging him behind the guard rooms. A video of the same was also shot by the public, which went viral on social media, as per a media report in the Hindu.

The minister added that the accused security guard had been suspended by the security agency which appointed personnel for the hospital.

The minister's office said in a release, "A direction has been issued to the hospital Superintendent so that such incidents do not recur. Police have registered a case against them too. Minister has also directed the hospital authorities to seek an explanation from the agency and asked to terminate the contract if needed."

The health department said that the security staff did not function under the medical college security officer. In a release, the department stated, "Henceforth, all security officers will report to the medical college security officer and their daily activities will be decided and monitored by the officer." The department also passed orders to provide adequate training to security officers before deploying them.

The orders came a day after state Human Rights Commission had registered a case in connection with the incident, as per a media report in the Times of India.

Human Rights Commission Chairperson Justice Antony Dominic had ordered the Medical Education Director and the city police commissioner to submit a report within three weeks after investigating the incident.

After the visuals of the assault went viral on social media, the commission had registered a case. It stated in a release that the incident took place a day ago at the entry gate to ward numbers 17, 18 and 19. It also made note of the fact that this was the second similar incident getting reported this week.

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