TN to deploy security personnel to prevent thefts of newborns

Stating that the CEmONC centres now have bigger buildings due to the increase in the number of patients, health secretary J Radhakrishnan said, “It is the state’s responsibility to ensure the safety of mothers and babies. Depending on the number of floors at each centre, security guards will be allotted. They will check theft and prevent bystanders from entering the wards and creating chaos.” 

One of the common troubles that these hospital managements face is that the patients and their attendants who shout the loudest tend to be attended to first, though there could be a more deserving patient who would require attention first. 

“The security guards will monitor such factors, besides also preventing more than one attendant from entering the centre – which has proven to be a great problem,” added Radhakrishnan. Currently, there are 126 CEmONC centres in the state that function at various government hospitals, of which 47 are deemed high performing. 

“These centres play an important role in the reduction of the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and  Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Tamil Nadu,” said an official. 

Two years after the government introduced electronic tagging of children born at the Government Rajaji Hospital in Madurai, the initiative has now been rolled out at hospitals in the city, including at the Institute of Child Health and Children’s Hospital, Egmore, and the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (IOG), from early last month. 

“Babies will have the reusable RFID tags on their ankles, while their mothers and attenders will wear them around the neck. The reader will set off a siren if the child is taken more than 50 metres away from there,” said an official.