Bengaluru: The Nimhans shooting incident took place at the jail ward located in pavilion one of the psychiatry building and it is right next to the nurses’ station. Pavalion one also houses a general ward, where patients suffering from extreme anxiety are admitted. According to one of the nurses, the prisoner was firing at the nurses’ station every few minutes from the jail ward window.
A Nimhans employee also informed that the police had taken over the pavilion number one and secured the area and even staff members were not allowed to enter. Another psychiatry professor told Deccan Chronicle that he had never witnessed something like this during his tenure at Nimhans.
A junior psychiatry social worker, who was an eyewitness, revealed that one of the doctors who got stuck in pavilion one for hours and could come only by 7 pm. “Despite a few tense hours, our main concern was the safety and security of our patients. We have secured them and our health professionals are treating them. All patients and Nimhans staff are fine and our health professionals are attending them.
The family members and guardians of patients at psychiatric pavilion number one, where the incident took place, are safe,” said Dr K Sekar, Professor and HOD, Dept of Psychiatric Social Work. Dr Sekar had personally gone to the pavilion where the incident took place and met the patients.
“It is a very shocking incident. Nimhans comes under the Medical Education Minister, so I will be discuss the issue with him and ways to prevent such incidents in future. Our goal should be that it does not happen again in the future,” said U.T. Khader, Health Minister.
