A frail guard and stray dogs: Hospital security in a nutshell

"Do you think he'll be able to protect me if a patient's attendant turns violent?" asked a young female doctor, gesturing towards the elderly security guard stationed outside the emergency ward of a hospital.

- UJWAL JALALI

The guard, aged 50, with his thin frame and a voice faint as a whistle, was seen diligently instructing the patient attendants to refrain from causing ruckus in the emergency room. Some took heed of his commands, while others clearly having shut out the frail man - ignored him completely.

Hospital security in Delhi has been the talk of the town since July 14, when two criminals waltzed into Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in Shahdara, determined to turn a medical facility into a crime scene. Their grand plan? To carry out one of the most audacious killings in recent memory, at a place dedicated to healing. The shooters, led by a juvenile gang leader who should have clearly stuck to video games rather than real-life crimes, fired the first shot at a patient. However, as fate would have it, his pistol jammed. Before he could get a second chance, another shooter fired three shots. The leader, not to be outdone, quickly repaired his pistol and fired another round, inadvertently killing an innocent bystander instead of the intended target. This debacle, as you might imagine, exposed some rather glaring flaws in the city hospital's security apparatus. Then, a month later, the brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata jolted the nation and the medical community out of their collective slumber.

In response, a unified chorus demanding a central protection act for doctors rose among anxious medical professionals. This newspaper, ever the diligent observer, decided to investigate the current state of hospital security in Delhi.