Phulbani: Security guards deployed at Kandhamal district headquarters hospital (DHH) are allegedly not sincere in discharging their assigned duties, leading to resentment among patients, local people and doctors as incidents of theft and misbehave with patients and their female attendants are allegedly occurring at regular intervals.
According to the information available, Bharat Security was awarded the tender two years ago and it has since been deploying guards at the hospital.
But the agency has not been providing the services as was agreed while receiving the tender.
The organisation is showing that its guards are kilful, earning about Rs 6.5 lakh from the hospital.
But the reality is that most of the guards deployed at the hospital are unskilled and have not been trained by the organisation, as per some medical employees.
In an incident that occurred a few days back, some outsiders, taking the advantage of the guards’ absence, went into the medicine ward at night and misbehaved with the daughter of a TB patient.
The doctor who had admitted the patient complained to the higher authorities against the guards being not sincere in their duties.
At that time, the hospital authorities swept the matter under the carpet, keeping the hospital’s interest in view even as informing the organisation about the guards’ laxity.
A reliable source said the security provider agency has not taken any step against the guards about whom the hospital authorities complained.
Wishing to remain anonymous, a hospital official alleged that the guards, who are local residents, are not discharging their duties properly.
“Whenever they are asked to be sincere and to do something, they are hardly obeying us. At times, they also use slur words against us,” said the official.
Similarly, it has not been taken into account as to how many guards are present against how many are supposed to be present. They are keeping the attendance register with them. They are always marking all of them present. While the attendance register is supposed to be got inspected by an official, they are getting it done from outdoor doctors, he alleged.
Some hospital employees have also alleged that they are more often than not disturbing doctors while they are busy attending patients.
When contacted, additional district medical officer Dr Manoranjan Rout said, “…given the big campus of the hospital, it is not usually possible to count the guards. But it is a fact that they are not doing their duties properly. The medical manager has also reported to us against some of the guards.”
“This year a new tender was floated and a security organization has recently been awarded the tender but I do not know the name of the organisation. Once new guards are deployed, we will keep a tight vigil on how they are working,” he added.
When asked, supervisor of Bharat Security, Udaynath Sahu only said they had shortage of manpower while trying to avoid being questioned. Regarding no action having been taken against the truant guards as yet, he said that it was under investigation.
PNN