Security short-circuited: No CCTVs in LG Hospital yet

The number of security guards was increased,fire brigade personnel were put on duty (they remain on duty alongside the normal hospital security staff) and metal detectors were used for security checks. In the government hospitals,like the Civil Hospital,CCTVs were also been installed to monitor the goings-on in the premises.

But at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation run L G Hospital,the plan to install CCTVs was dropped.

Hospital Superintendent Dr Surela refused to comment on the matter citing security reasons,while AMC Standing Committee chairman Asit Vora said,“There is no need for it now.”

A medical staffer at the hospital,however,said on condition of anonymity that the move was dropped because the hospital building might be torn down and a new medical college building,sanctioned last December,will be built instead.

A number of security firms had apparently shown interest in setting up the CCTVs,but never pursued it to fruition.

At 6.30 pm,exactly year ago,14 blasts ripped Ahmedabad apart in less than 90 minutes. As the victims were being rushed to three hospitals,two explosions rocked the Civil Hospital and LG Hospital.

The blast in LG Hospital was triggered by an explosive-laden car that was parked near the hospital’s front entrance. It was also right opposite to the emergency ward. The blast was meticulously planned as most of the injured in the five blasts in the Maninagar area were rushed to this hospital and as such,it was crowded.

According to Dr Lakshman Taviya,the resident medical officer on duty at the time,and Deputy Superintendent Dr Surilal Sharma,the explosion was so powerful that it blew off the parking lot roof. About 20 feet of the compound wall collapsed,and the windows of the hospital building’s wing that runs parallel to the compound wall were completely blown off and glass shrapnel flew into the offices and rooms.

Dr Sharma had left for a visit to Mt Abu in Rajasthan that day after work.

“It was a stroke of luck. I came to office with my clothes in a bag,and I left as soon as my work got over. I might have been sitting in my office when the bomb went off and the shrapnel blew in…” said Dr Sharma,whose office is barely 10 metres away from the blast site.

Although the entrance to the hospital’s emergency ward is almost opposite to the parking lot,the ward is situated much deeper indoors as laboratories are lined up along the wall.

“Almost everyone was inside the emergency or casualty wards (which are even deeper inside),attending to the patients who were brought in,” said Dr Taviya.

“So,fortunately,no one was injured by shrapnel,nor was anyone fatally-close to the explosion,” he added.