Baragwanath hit by safety concerns
Thembelihle Tshabalala | Johannesburg, South Africa
06 August 2007 04:44
Students and medical staff at the Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital say they feel unsafe -- and that administrators need to do more to improve safety at the world's biggest hospital.
On July 30, a student was raped at the hospital. She had been on her way to the blood bank at about 7pm when two men approached her and one of them raped her.
Alice Dube, a radiographer at Bara, says that the hospital is not safe at all. "The passages don't have sufficient lighting and there are just not enough guards," she said.
Dube also said she was worried that there was a shortage of security guards.
"If you want to walk to the maternity ward at night, for instance, you have to get someone from the department to walk you. That means two radiographers are out on one call."
There are two groups of security companies that are responsible for security at the hospital.
"There are guards at the gate and there are other armed guards that patrol around the hospital," said Dr Anna Sparaco, who works at the hospital.
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The hospital's CEO, Dr Arthur Manning, promised the staff that there would be an improvement in security. "There will be sufficient lighting in areas that need lighting and the South African Police Service [SAPS] will patrol the premises with immediate effect."
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"The most popular crimes around the hospital are cellphone and jewellery thefts where the victims are mostly targeted at night in dark passages in the hospital," said Alice Dube.
