CHENNAI : Tamil Nadu government is yet to come out with guidelines for implementation of safety measures in hospitals and medical centres, both government and private, according to a social activist Jawaharlal Shanmugham, on whose petition fire safety guidelines for hospitals are being framed following a Madras High Court order.
This comes after a fire broke out in a hospital at Kelambakkam on Saturday. The fire started around 4.15 am in the pharmacy on the first floor. Nearly 25 patients from the first and second floors were shifted immediately to another ward. The fire was brought under control after two hours.Shanmugham told Express that the hospital had set up ramps after he had inspected the hospital and gave his recommendations. He said this will have helped in evacuation of the patients.
“When I inspected the hospital, the authorities said a ramp was about to come up and I hope it was helpful in evacuating the patients during the fire,” he said. When Express tried to reach out to the hospital authorities, they did not respond.
Shanmugham said a Tamil Nadu government survey found private and government hospitals lacking fire safety mechanisms in one way or the other. The guidelines will go a long way in establishing fire safety norms in hospitals. On October 2016, Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services Department filed an affidavit in the High court, according to which not a single government hospital in Chennai has the mandatory fire safety compliance certificate.
Highlighting the need for good ventilation, Shanmugham said that during his inspection, he had found how another hospital in the city came out with a `2-crore fire safety system where in the smoke is sucked out, thus reducing the possible threat of patients dying of asphyxiation in the event of a fire.