90% hospitals in Hyd face fire risk

There are 950 hospitals, small and big, in the GHMC limits. Almost none of them meets even the basic fire safety norms required for a hospital building to keep their patients and staff safe in the event of a fire.

A survey by the authorities, following the October

2019 fire accident in Shine Children’s Hospital, LB Nagar, that saw the death of a four-month old baby and burns to four others in the neonatal ward, revealed that more than

90 per cent of hospitals in the GHMC area fared miserably on fire safety parameters.

The survey followed instructions from the government to ensure all these hospitals meet fire safety requirements.

“Almost every hospital has some deficiency or the other with respect to fire safety,” a government official said. Included in the list of violators are some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry. “You name it, it is there in the violators’ list,” the official added.

The focus on fire safety in hospitals yet again came to the fore with Thursday’s fire accident in a Covid-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad in which at least eight patients in the ICU ward died.

While the National Building Code lays down detailed guidelines for fire prevention, suppression, and rescue in the event of a fire in a hospital, these norms have been practically thrown to the winds in the state and in GHMC limits, a source said. The GHMC follows the NBC code for hospitals as well as GO Ms. No. 168, dated April 7, 2012, with respect to fire safety norms in hospitals.

One of the biggest violations is the setting up of hospitals in buildings meant for residential purposes which are simply not designed for the purpose. Incidentally, the building housing the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences at Gachibowli, the latest showpiece of the government’s healthcare initiatives and now a Covid-19 designated hospital, was originally built as a residential building.

It was learnt that preparations were on earlier this year to begin taking action after notices were served to the violating hospitals but the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic brought these steps to a halt. Asked what action hospitals violating fire safety norms face, an official said it could mean seizing such buildings and shutting them down. “We will be looking at following up on the earlier notices and taking action on the violators,” the official said.Every one of the hospitals violating fire safety measures, it was learnt, did not even apply for a fire no objection certificate after obtaining one initially, mostly during their setting-up phase.