BHUBANESWAR: Khurda district administration has served a show cause notice on the management of SUM Hospital asking it why the hospital’s clinical licence should not be cancelled and the facility sealed for flouting fire safety norms.
The notice was issued three days after the fire mishap in dialysis unit of the hospital that led to death of 21 persons. The management of the private hospital has been asked to submit their reply within a week.
Sources said the hospital’s certificate of registration was renewed by the Collector on July 7 despite the fact that the health facility did not obtain fire safety certificate as per the circular issued by the State Government.
‘’The certificate of fresh registration shall be valid from April 6, 2016 to April 5, 2018,’’ the registration certificate issued by the Collector stated.
In February last year, the Government had asked the administration of districts not to register any hospital or renew their licence if these failed to produce fire safety clearance certificate.
In June, the Health and Family Welfare Department had also issued a guideline on fire safety measures and directed Collectors to conduct an inspection and penalise the institutions or serve closure notice against those who failed to ensure that the safety measures are in place.
The Collectors were also asked to conduct survey and identify deviation in infrastructure by the registered private hospitals and nursing homes after the issue of no-objection certificate and submit report to the Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET).
Sources said though three months have passed since the circular was issued, no action against the clinical establishments has been taken. Of around 1800 hospitals and nursing homes in the State, only nine have obtained fire safety clearance certificate.
Khurda Collector had, however, renewed the registration certificate to maintain the clinical establishment though SUM Hospital did not have fire safety clearance since 2013.