Materia Medica Malaysiana

All government hospitals beef up security measures

All 125 government hospitals nationwide have immediately beefed up security measures on the Health Ministry’s orders, following the disappearance of a newborn baby at Sungai Petani Hospital on Sunday.
Although government hospitals had existing security measures, there was still room for improvement, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said.
“All government hospitals have security procedures that the staff and visitors must adhere to but in the case of the missing baby, the effectiveness of the process is questionable,” he said.
“Perhaps there is a need to install closed-circuit TV cameras or come up with an electronic device to monitor the movements of staff, patients and visitors at the wards,” he said yesterday.
On Sunday, the newborn baby of Noryati Abu Bakar, 31, and Mohamad Nordin Derais @ Idris, 34, was snatched from Sungai Petani Hospital Ward A4 where he was warded shortly after birth as he had difficulty in breathing.
The 3.6kg, baby which was born at 8.32am on Sunday was seen by Mohamad Nordin three times before he vanished from Ward A4 the same day.
His disappearance was only discovered at 2.30pm by a hospital staff member.
The baby was the couple’s third child. Mohamad Nordin also said he would not be able to recognise his son now as he had only managed short glimpses during his three visits to the ward.
Hospital director Dr Harif Fadzilah Che Hashim lodged a police report on the missing baby at 6.03pm on Sunday and the baby’s father Mohamed Nordin made his report at 7.50pm the same day.
Dr Abdul Latiff said the parents of the missing baby had the right to take legal action against the hospital if they wished.
“We sympathise with the parents,” he added.