Ahmedabad Civic Body's LG Hospital flouts own ICU fire safety norms

Ahmedabad: After the tragic Shrey Hospital fire that killed eight COVID-19 patients in 2020, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) issued strict fire-safety advisories for hospitals, especially warning against keeping ICUs on upper floors. Five years later, however, the civic body itself has failed to follow the very rules it had framed.

Medical Dialogues in 2020 reported about the incident where a blaze in the wee hours at a private hospital in Ahmedabad left eight COVID-19 patients dead. The victims included five men and three women, who were being treated at the ICU ward of the COVID-19-designated Shrey Hospital in the Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad.

The tragic incident reported prompted the civic body to issue a strict fire-safety advisory, including a clear preference for keeping ICUs on the ground floor. However, AMC’s newly constructed LG Hospital in Maninagar has its Respiratory ICU (RICU) and Burns Ward located on the 9th floor, directly contradicting its own guidelines that ICUs should preferably be kept on the ground floor to reduce fire risk and ensure faster evacuation during emergencies.

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As per TOI media report, the Rs 185-crore LG Hospital is a 795-bed civic facility with 14 operation theatres and a built-up area of nearly 59,571 sq metres. However, the placement of critical care units at such a height has raised serious questions about whether fire-safety norms apply equally to private hospitals and government-run ones.

According to official records, the initial layout of the new LG Hospital building had ICUs, Burns Ward, RICU and operation theatres planned on the 3rd floor, while a lecture hall was proposed on the 9th floor. However, during construction, the plan was altered.

After the medical council guidelines were revised, stating that a lecture hall was not mandatory if the medical college and hospital are on the same campus, AMC scrapped the lecture hall and decided to relocate the Burns Ward and RICU to the 9th floor instead.

The fire-safety advisory was issued based on an oral order by the Gujarat High Court, which issued directions to ensure strict compliance with fire-safety norms across city hospitals.

In June 2022, the then Ahmedabad chief fire officer asked over 200 private hospitals to submit written undertakings agreeing to follow a detailed 10-point safety checklist. The direction was issued acting on an oral order of the Chief Justice in a PIL regarding the fire incident.

Among those points was a crucial clause, "ICU should preferably be located only on the ground floor and have alternate exits wide enough to roll beds out in an emergency."

While private hospitals were forced to comply and submit undertakings, AMC’s own LG Hospital appears to have taken a different path.

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