COMMENT: Urgently address the issue of security at UBH

ONE of the major referral hospitals for the southern region, United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) recently lost sedative drugs, pethidine and morphine to thieves thereby adversely affecting the hospital’s surgical operations.

The hospital lost nearly 400 doses of pethidine and morphine and patients are now being asked to provide their own sedative drugs.

The institution is a referral hospital for Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and South provinces, Midlands and Masvingo provinces.

The thieves broke into the hospital’s pharmacy on Monday last week and disabled CCTV cameras before stealing the drugs, a laptop and a tablet.

There are strong indications that the theft is an inside job given that the hospital is manned 24 hours by a private security company and there is also a police base at the hospital.

The hospital attends mostly to the poor who cannot afford to buy their own drugs. The lives of most of these poor patients requiring urgent surgical operations are at risk as they cannot be operated on without the sedative drugs.

There is therefore, an urgent need to overhaul the security system at the hospital.

Last year the hospital lost seven plasma television sets, a confirmation that security at the hospital is very lax.

The authorities at the hospital need to urgently address the issue of security before the hospital starts losing essential equipment.

We cannot rule out the possibility of security personnel working in cahoots with hospital staff to steal given that all entrances and exits to the hospital are manned by security guards 24 hours.

There are unconfirmed reports of staff members who have resigned after being captured by CCTV cameras stealing drugs from the pharmacy. The authorities, apart from tightening security, should also weed out thieving workers to protect the hospital’s assets and other essentials.

Those who work for public institutions like hospitals should be men and women of integrity whose conduct both at work and away is beyond reproach. There could also be a need to assess the engaged security company’s capacity to provide security to such a big institution given the increased theft cases being recorded.