Govt issues orders for fire drills at Covid hospitals
SC pulled up the states after a fire incident at a hospital in Gujarat
BARMER: Following the Supreme Court directions, the state government issued orders to all district collectors to carry out regular fire prevention drills in Covid hospitals.
The order mentions that the apex court on November 26, taking cognizance of a fire outbreak incident in the ICU of a designated Covid hospital in Rajkot in Gujarat last Friday, had pulled up the states for not taking any concrete action to mitigate the problem. Five patients had died in the fire mishap in Gujarat.
The top court had termed the Rajkot incident as shocking and said it reflects the situation of designated government hospitals as similar instances have taken place in other places too. The court said that such an incident reflected that there are no proper fire safety measure in place.
Siddharth Mahajan, secretary at the Medical and Health department wrote to all district collectors and directed them to review the fire fighting measures in the government hospitals as well as Covid dedicated private hospitals. He directed the collectors to coordinate with the officials of the health department, medical colleges and management authorities of Covid dedicated private hospitals to discuss the measures of fire fighting and to ensure regular fire prevention drills in
Covid hospitals.
Dr Manish Singhvi, additional advocate general of government of Rajasthan, in his letter to state chief secretary informed that the Supreme Court was very anguished with regard to the Rajkot fire incident.
He requested the chief secretary for a proper Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) which should be implemented in all Covid hospitals and all such hospitals must undergo the routine fire prevention drill so as to prevent any such incident. Dr Singhvi further wrote that if there is no SOP, especially engrafted for Covid Hospitals, then it should be drafted in consultation with the fire extinguisher department. Once the SOP is in place in Covid Hospitals, it should be adhered to.
Vishram Meena, district collector in Barmer said that they have got the direction from the state government to review the fire fighting measures in the government hospitals as well as Covid dedicated private hospitals. He said, “I have called a meeting of health officials on Wednesday in which management authorities of Covid dedicated private hospitals are also invited to discuss the measures of fire fighting.”
Meena added that government directions will be followed and regular fire prevention drills in Covid hospitals will be organised.
The Rajkot incident was the second such incident in Gujarat.
Before that, eight coronavirus patients had died in a blaze at a private Covid-19 designated hospital in Ahmedabad in August.