CHANDIGARH: The devastating fire in a Kolkata hospital, which claimed 89 lives on Friday, is yet to give a wake-up call to the government and private hospitals in Haryana. Most of these are wanting in fire safety measures as well as training to staff. Almost all civil hospitals lack fire safety measures. Though Pt Bhagwat Dayal PGIMS, Rohtak, is well-equipped, it's yet to train its staff in dealing with a fire emergency situation. TOI reporters in Ambala, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Sirsa, Hisar and Fatehabad found government hospitals' corridors congested, fire exits blocked and blocks for hose and hydrants serving other purposes. PGIMS, Rohtak, is quite crowded with around 5,500 patients visiting outdoor patients department daily, around 1,500 to 1,700 getting admitted to wards and their attendants accompanying them. Though it has fire extinguishers, its staff and security personnel are not trained to handle these. Medical superintendent of PGIMS Dr Ashok Chauhan said the Kolkata incident had served as a wakeup call for them and they had got all fire-fighting equipment checked and updated on Saturday. "We are ensuring modern fire-fighting techniques in new blocks, including the OPD. Hydraulic system has been installed at these buildings," he added. The situation is no better in Bhiwani's civil hospital which is visited by around 700 patients daily. Though CMO Dr Ramesh Sangwan claimed that they had adequate fire-safety equipment to deal with such tragedies, absence of new techniques there raises eyebrows. In Ambala and Yamunanagar, hospitals were found wanting. There are no fire safety devices in Trauma Centre in Yamunanagar. The district health department admitted that the building was not well-equipped to deal with a blaze. V K Sharma, CMO, Yamunanagar, said, "I have written to the department concerned to apprise us of fire safety so that proper arrangements could be made, but there has been no response. We cannot do anything alone." There are more than 400 private hospitals in Ambala. Most of these are being run from congested streets (especially in Ambala Cantt). In the old area of Ambala Cantt, there are many hospitals where two persons cannot enter at the same time. Some doctors said, "Most of these cannot give a safe exit in case of a fire." In Ambala civil hospital, there are fire safety devices, but all don't function. CMO Satish Aggarwal said, "We are concerned about the fire safety and keep checking the building." (With inputs from Pradeep Rai from Ambala, Deepender Deswal from Rohtak, Bhaskar Mukherjee from Sirsa and Anita Singh from Karnal) In Sirsa, too, the health authorities admitted lack of fire-safety measures. Dr G S Somani, child specialist and medical superintendent, said, "We have two fire equipment but these have never been re-changed or refilled. I am sure, if any major incident occurs, it can easily turn a big incident here. Though, we have wrote many times to the higher authorities, but all in-vain." |
