New Delhi: Committee to review fire safety measures of Govt hospitals

New Delhi: The government has constituted a committee to review fire safety measures at various Central government hospitals and directed it to submit a report within 15 days, a move which comes in the backdrop of a major fire at a hospital in Odisha recently which claimed over 20 lives. Union Health Minister J P Nadda held a meeting to review the fire safety protocols which are being followed in all Central government hospitals all over the country. “Reviewed fire safety protocols being followed in all Central government hospitals.

“The committee has been constituted to review comprehensive guidelines for fire safety and directed to submit its report within 15 days,” Nadda tweeted. Sources said that a joint secretary in the Union Health ministry has been made the chairman of the committee which also includes various stakeholders from different hospitals. Sources said that during the meeting, Nadda directed officials to lay stress on having proper fire escape routes and measures in place especially in operation theatres and ICUs so that patients inside these rooms can be evacuated properly during a fire.

It can be recalled that more than 20 patients were killed and over 20 others injured in a fire that broke out at Sum private hospital in Odisha recently, in one of the worst such incidents involving a medical facility in the state. The blaze was suspected to have been triggered by an electric short circuit in the dialysis ward on the first floor of the private hospital which spread to the nearby Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Nadda during his visit to the hospital after the fire had said that all those responsible for the incident should be punished. Odisha Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak had also resigned on moral grounds after the incident. The owner of the Odisha hospital was also arrested.