Investigation into the security affairs of the government-run hospitals in the city has revealed that poorly guarded Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) is facing threats, it has been learnt.
The hospital administration has put unarmed security staff on alert since last many days to keep an eye on suspicious movement inside or outside the healthcare facility.
It is pertinent to add that 11 people were killed and 40 others sustained injuries in an explosion, similar to the one reported from Civil Hospital Quetta (CHQ) last day, inside JPMC emergency ward when the dead or injured of a blast targeting mourners of Hazrat Imam Hussain on Sharae Faisal reached the healthcare facility in February 2010.
The situation of this hospital is no more different than it was reported after the blast in February 2010. Only one main gate of the hospital’s three gates has been spared for the visitor’s entrance and exit from the hospital. The old gate is closed for public after the relocation of emergency ward following a blast in the hospital in 2010.
The third gate of the hospital facing Staff Colony is still unguarded and entrance from this way goes unchecked. The only guarded gate of the hospital has deployment of unarmed guards who even do not possess security gadgets to check arms and explosive material.
The JPMC has its own security staff but it has hired services of a private security firm as well. Interestingly, the private security firm didn’t provide arms to its staffers guarding the JPMC but a number of guards were witnessed on the main gate, emergency ward and barriers installed to block vehicular traffic.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the JPMC evening shift security in-charge Gulraiz Khan said that security of the hospital was put on high alert since last many days, but “we can’t do anything if anyone carrying arms attacks the hospital. We have no weapon. We have no security gadget to check the visitor. Here we are just maintaining the flow of vehicular traffic,” Khan maintained.
The JPMC spokesperson and in-charge of hospital’s emergency services, Dr Seemi Jamali, told this scribe that the management had taken every possible step to secure the healthcare facility from attack like the one reported in Quetta last day, but the security arrangements were not satisfactory. “The hospital’s security staff is not properly trained to respond to any terrorists’ adventure in the vicinity,” she admitted.
Giving a preview of the hospital’s security, Dr Jamali claimed that the hospital administration had relocated emergency ward and installed three gates to avoid easy entry through it.
“The healthcare facility was secured further by installing barriers on the entrance of many wards, but we can’t restrict movement of visitors because of security threats as the JPMC is a public hospital,” she added.
When Dr Jamali was asked about unchecked entrance of visitors from Bazarta Line and Staff Colony, she claimed that the hospital had three main gates and it was not possible to secure every gate with limited security. “We are planning to secure a JPMC main gate facing Staff Colony, but we are running short of resources,” said Dr Jamali
When about unarmed guards, she said: “If we provide arms to our guards, then there is every possibility that they may use these weapons to avenge their enmities.”
Before concluding the telephonic conversation, Dr Jamali said that hospitals had become soft targets like schools and there was a dire need to provide security to the public sector healthcare facilities in the city.
