THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: State Fire and Rescue Services Department will conduct a safety audit of hospitals in the wake of Bhubaneswar’s SUM Hospital fire. The department has sent a three-member team to study the SUM Hospital fire ahead of the audit which would begin in a month’s time. The team, comprising three assistant divisional officers, has been asked to submit a report on the ‘problems faced in mitigation’ and ‘lessons for the state’.
Director General of Fire and Rescue Services A Hemachandran told Express that hospitals were one of the high-risk segments. “After the Odisha incident, we conducted a preliminary risk assessment of government medical colleges. Majority of them didn’t adhere to safety standards and were asked to rectify the errors,”he said. “Next in line is a fire risk assessment of all public and private hospitals. Our local offices will be given a checklist to assess the vulnerability of each institution. The report will be given to the hospital, local self-government concerned and state government,” he said.
“Evacuation of in-patients would be the most difficult task in a hospital fire. Also, most of the hospitals witness huge crowds everyday. Reducing the risk chances is important,” he said.
A good number of hospitals, including government medical colleges and taluk hospitals, were built before the fire safety adherence was made mandatory. But, the state has not witnessed a major hospital fire and a resultant casualty in the recent history. State Disaster Management Authority’s member secretary Sekhar L Kuriakose said the non-occurrence of a major hospital fire increases the mitigation risk. “Equipping the fire brigade to contain such an eventuality and training the hospital staff in basic fire fighting techniques are necessary,” he said. Sekhar said fire safety was a component in the state disaster management plan.
“All government departments have been given directions to be implemented within a year. This includes response to external emergencies and those within their premises,” he said. Government does not have exact figures of private hospitals as they do not require registration with the Health Department. The department’s unofficial estimate is 2,000. Kerala Private Hospitals Association says there are 1,200 hospitals with in-patient facility.