PESHAWAR, Dec 11: The provincial health department installed sensitive screening cameras in various wards and outpatient departments of the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Monday.

The move is aimed to improve security and monitor movement of visitors and routine activities in the 1,200-bed hospital.

According to hospital sources, eight digital cameras capable of catching minute movement had been installed at ‘sensitive places’ in the hospital.

“The surveillance will help the administration prevent a terrorist attempt,” said a doctor.

Three survivors of the Bajaur military operation, in which some 80 people were killed, are under treatment at the hospital.

“People, especially media persons, visit the survivors and interview them, creating security problem. The situation aggravated and patients were shifted to a private hospital,” sources said.

Likewise, the government has deployed policemen at the hospital to ensure security of army recruits who were injured in the Dargai suicide attack and are now under treatment at the LRH.

The source said that the installation of the cameras would help identify patients wanted by law-enforcement agencies for their alleged involvement in anti-social activities.

He said the government was facing problems in providing security to patients who needed protection in the hospital.

The source said that the kidnapping of newborn male babies from the hospital’s labour room had become a challenge for the administration.

In the past few months, several infants had reportedly been kidnapped from the labour room.

The incidents of kidnapping had earned a bad name for the provincial government and the issue was debated in the NWFP Assembly.

The installation of the surveillance cameras would enable the hospital administration to keep a constant vigil on staff members collaborating with the kidnappers.