Govt hospitals, police don't keep separate records of stolen babies

In the last couple of years, several cases of baby-lifting have been reported in parts of Kilpauk Medical College, Institute of Child Health, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and RSRM Hospital in the city, and in government hospitals across Salem, Trichy and Madurai.

Even though hospital authorities are quick to clarify that all baby-lifting incidents are reported to the police, they are reluctant to reveal how many such cases have taken place. Recalling an incident, the dean of one of Chennai’s prominent government hospitals said, “A few years ago, a woman pretending to be a patient’s attendee tried to take a way a baby from the hospital. The middle-aged woman started visiting the paediatric ward and stayed in the hospital for about four to five days. She then started interacting with a mother of a newborn in the ward. She even started to help them bring food from outside and gained their confidence.

“As the mother was unwell, she was taken for some pathological tests and the baby was shifted to the neonatal ward. Taking advantage of the mother’s absence, the woman snatched the baby from the lap of a relative and ran away,” said the dean.

Speaking about such incidents, ICH director, Arasar Seeralar, said, "The police are informed about all cases of baby theft from government hospitals, and they take action accordingly. We do not keep any records of such incidents."

Meanwhile, the city police registers baby lifting instances as missing kids cases. Additional Director General of Police Seema Aggarwal said, “All baby-lifting cases are recorded as missing child cases and there is no separate record of baby-lifting cases at government hospitals.” This makes it difficult to put a definite number of such instances in Chennai.

Crowded hospitals andlack of security personnel

Crowded hospitals make things easier for child lifters and difficult for the authorities. Government hospitals witness a footfall of thousands daily and none of them are screened by guards at except the emergency wards at all the hospitals. “There is no record of visitors at the government hospitals at any of the wards because it is not possible to register each and every visitor since each patient will have around 5-10 visitors daily,” said Dr P Vasanthamani, the dean of Kilpauk Medical College.

Lack of adequate staff andlow doctor to patient ratio

There are more than 50 deliveries performed at Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Government Hospital for Women and Children Egmore on a single day, while around 25 deliveries are carried out in a single day at KMC. The general ward at IOG has more than 50 beds that is taken care of by one nurse only. In private hospitals, however, carry out only 10-15 deliveries per day. Thus, the doctor to patient ratio is low in government hospitals and a general labour ward is headed by only one nurse. The staff crunch at government hospitals is another reason for lack of monitoring on visitors.

“After delivery, the mother and the baby need to be monitored constantly and regular check-ups such as temperature, blood pressure, skin tests and need to be carried out. While we have to conduct these twice or thrice during the day, it is difficult to monitor each and every patient round the clock. Thus, we need more nurses in a particular ward for better monitoring,” said Sumathi, a nurse at IOG.

Safety measures limitedto a few hospitals

There are 126 Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care Centres (CEmONC) that has witnessed more than six lakh deliveries in last two years throughout Tamil Nadu. But, the CCTV cameras are installed only in district headquarter hospitals and 22 government medical colleges in the state.

Only four government hospitals in the state, including KMC, ICH, Madurai Government Hospital and Kasturba Gandhi Government Hospital, have the RFID tag system to prevent babies being misplaced or stolen.

Outsourced health workers

The health workers at the government hospitals are outsourced and are continuously rotated for different shifts and hospitals by the private groups.

In 2016, a health worker was caught for her involvement in stealing babies from RSRM hospital. Similar incidents surface from time to time as the health workers are not known to either the attendee or the patient.

“While some of the patients have too many visitors, some of the pregnant mothers do not have even a single attendee. As such nurses or health workers play the role of attendee at various occasions. There are regular tests for the child and the mother, post-term, as these are specific tests at a particular department, the baby or the mother is carried to the particular department by the health workers, also providing an opportunity for miscreants to steal newborns,” said Dr Mohan Kumar, consultant paediatrician at ICH.

Sprawling buildings ofmajor government hospitals

The sprawling buildings of the major government hospitals proves to be a challenge for the authorities in providing adequate security.

“The premises of KMC, RGGGH and Stanley Medical College are huge and also witness various construction work from time to time,” said resident medical officer at Stanley Medical College and Hospital.

“There are various blocks that have been abandoned and are not monitored by the hospital authorities. It is not feasible for hospital authorities to monitor the unused sections of the premises and so the safety personnel are posted only at the wards,” the doctor added.