New Delhi: Almost 80% of government-run hospitals in Delhi, which together have a daily footfall of about 50,000, do not have basic fire safety measures in place.
Overcrowding, lack of trained manpower and poor maintenance are other problems that put the city’s hospitals at risk.
At least 20 people were killed and scores injured in a fire that broke out at a private hospital in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, on Monday night.
“In government hospitals, deficiencies in compartmentalisation to prevent spread of smoke and fire from one section to another, lack of smoke management system and unreliable fire management systems were noticed during a review after the AMRI fire in Kolkata in 2011,” said AK Sharma, former director of Delhi Fire Services. Some of the hospitals have not addressed these problems.
“However, almost all private hospitals have the basic fire safety measures in place and maintain them,” he said.
A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report says that emergency exit gates were locked at Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospitals. Together the hospitals receive almost 14,000 patients in their out-patient department daily.
“Many gates and doors are locked in the government hospitals to better manage the crowd and ensure safety of the doctors and staff. But, it is at the cost of safety in case of fire,” said Sharma.
In RML, compartmentalisation using fire-safe doors was not according to the standards and the fire systems in the Post-graduate Institute block weren’t functional. There was no trained fire staff.
In DDU, apart from the locked gates, there was no water for fire-fighting measures, no emergency power supply and a dysfunctional public address system, the CAG report pointed out.
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