Top city hospitals too falter on fire safety norms
The fire tragedy at Kolkata hospital on Friday which claimed 89 lives exposed lack of fire safety norms and the hospitals in the capital are also no exception on this front. Some top hospitals here still do not have the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Delhi Fire Service, which is mandatory for any operational institution.
The Cardiovascular and Neuro Sciences Centre of AIIMS, which houses the VVIP ward, is among five hospital buildings here that do not have the No-Objection Certificate from the Delhi Fire Services.
Other buildings including the Trauma Centre at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and the New Ward Block of Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital do not have the No Objection Certificate, Delhi Fire Services director A.K. Sharma said.
The fire department has raised objection to the safety measures in the dental department of Maulana Azad Medical College and Trauma Centre of Deen Dayal Uphadhyay Hospital.
“Certain loopholes regarding fire safety were pointed out to the authorities of these hospitals but none of them had come back with an undertaking of meeting the criteria. Absence of sprinkler system in the buildings, smoke management system and compartmentalising of rooms to prevent spread of fire are among the main criteria that have not been met by hospital authorities,” Mr Sharma said.
Fire officials said that as soon as fire breaks out in any building, the sprinkler system helps douse it. A proper smoke management system drives the smoke out of the building and would otherwise choke and cause death of patients.
“Compartmentalising implies that the arrangement should be such that fire in one block should not spread to the other. This helps conduct rescue operation faster”, said Mr Sharma.
The New Trauma Centre at RML Hospital is a 78-bed independent six-storied fully air-conditioned building while the cardiovascular and neuro sciences centre has nearly 400 beds exclusively for surgery patients. The new quake-resistant ward at GTB Hospital is a 500-bed building.
According to an official of AIIMS, a small fire had broken in the air-conditioning unit of the cardio neuro centre in June 2006. Fortunately no one was injured in the incident.
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