Security of hospitals questioned after car explosion

After a car explosion outside of Liverpool Women’s Hospital last Sunday, the question of how safe British hospitals are has been raised.

Shortly before 11:00 on Remembrance Sunday, a taxi pulled up to Liverpool Women’s hospital where the passenger let off an explosive, resulting in their death and the driver managed to narrowly survive. Three men were later arrested under the terrorism act about a mile from the scene. Counter Terrorism Police North West are leading the investigation alongside Merseyside Police and MI5.

While this remains to be a national conversation of hospital security, active hospital goer, Jannie Christian, spoke about how if it would’ve happened in Scunthorpe ‘he could have taken out a few’ due to people having to line up around the block to even be considered for care at the accident and emergency centre. It begs the question of if there should be more checks for cars entering hospitals and how increased security should be regulated.

NHS nurse, Sonia Hill, on the subject of security in hospitals said that there are certain things in place like security guards and entry cards to get onto certain wards and because of these measures, feels safe at work. However in case of terrorist attacks, she feels that we could all benefit and feel safer if there were more security guards dotted about. 

Local student, Rachel McMaster, said ‘The streets were evacuated but I don’t feel as there’s been enough information released to the people in the surrounding areas’. She added that she has felt uneasy and unsafe in her local area since the explosion was only a short distance away from her house.

The debate of increased security continues, Seif Bouddaada, a security guard with 30 years of experience, feels that an increased presence of security at the entrances and exits of hospitals as well as patrols within the building could help to combat the problem and keep our hospitals safer.