HYDERABAD: If the fire accident of the kind that recently hit ESIC Hospital in Mumbai had to occur in any government hospital in Telangana it will have a far worse impact due to inadequate safety measures prevalent at these places.
Most of the prominent government tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad, for instance, either lack fire safety measures or even if they have they are inadequate, putting lives of more than 3,500 patients, who utilise their services, at risk.
It may be recalled that tragedy at Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital in Andheri, which shook the whole country, led to eight deaths, including that of a five-month-old baby, while leaving 157 people injured.
In the past, Express reported about lack of proper safety measures at Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital. More than a year after this newspaper brought those lapses to light, there seems to be hardly any improvement at these hospitals. In fact, minor fire accidents continue to occur at OGH.
Though, on the other hand, there is a slight improvement at the Government Maternity Hospital in Koti, there is a problem with the source of water to the hose reels.
Doctors and hospital staff on condition of anonymity said that patients, attendants and their lives are at risk and people could char to death or die due to asphyxiation in case of fire accident.
There is every possibility of such tragedies unfolding if there were to be a fire accident in these hospitals. Though there only 1,012 beds at Gandhi Hospital, more than 2,000 patients are admitted there and around 1,500 patients are admitted to 1,168-bed capacity OGH.
A modest estimation of one attendant per patient might lead to head count of 3,500 patients plus equal number of attendants, put together 7,000 people at least.
All of them would rush to exit gates at a time and patients in critical condition would struggle to move out of the building if fire starts to spread. Successive superintendents of the hospital have pointed out these lapses and requested Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation to address the issue. It is learnt that requests were filed to place spiral stairs on four sides of the main building so that they can be used during the accidents.
In case of Osmania General Hospital, the fire safety measures are completely missing. Sources said that there is only one small sump tank is connected to hose reels in all four floors of Government Maternity Hospital, Koti, which is inadequate.
When Director of Medical Education Dr K Ramesh Reddy was asked for response on the long delay in addressing the issue, the senior official said that they are constantly pursuing the issue with TSMIDC.
“Inputs on what needs to be done were given after mock drills were conducted and TSMIDC gave estimates. Two-months ago, I asked the corporation how many extinguishers are needed at government hospitals (Under DME’s purview). I will follow up with them for the response,” Reddy said.