The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has seen several cases of thefts in its wards and hostel over the past few months, said doctors of the country’s premier research and healthcare facility.

“Many valuables and gadgets, including laptops, mobile phones and personal belongings, and even vehicles of resident doctors have been stolen from their duty rooms, changing rooms or campus,” said a senior resident doctor.

The AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) has now approached the hospital administration seeking immediate redressal, stating that they are “unable to work properly due to the constant threat”. “We will stop work if a better working environment is not provided to us urgently,” said the doctors.

In their letter, the doctors have said the attitude of AIIMS security has been extremely callous in this regard.

“The security guards and those stationed at AIIMS police post have been unprofessional and non-cooperative with the residents. There have been reports that FIRs are not being registered. We have had an instance where the police staff scolded a female resident for not taking care of her belonging when she went to lodge an FIR. They harass the doctors,” noted the letter.

Delay in action

The doctors added that there is always “delay in action and no follow-up of the complaints lodged earlier”.

“Residents are made to run pillar to post for registering their complaints. In many cases, no action is initiated even after providing CCTV footage of the culprits. Many residents have not even received compensation for the items lost many years back, which is the only assurance security officer give at the time of the theft,” said Amarinder Singh Malhi, AIIMS RDA president.

The RDA has demanded that fingerprint-operated door locks, already in use in some departments of AIIMS, be used across the campus. “We urge the administration to consider implementing the system for door locks across all duty rooms as early as possible,” said the association.

The group has demanded immediate monetary compensation as promised for items that have been stolen, installation of enhanced security door locks for all duty rooms, efficient follow-up of complaints and transfer of non-performing security personnel.

“The residents of AIIMS are extremely distressed by these recurrent thefts and unprofessional behaviour of the police and non-fulfillment of our demands. The RDA and AIIMS residents will consider stopping work as we cannot take care of patients in an unsafe and non-cooperative environment,” read the letter.