Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): The fire tragedy in the Jabalpur hospital that claimed at least 8 lives on Monday could have been averted had authorities concerned acted on Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s instructions that came immediately after major fire in SNCU ward of Kamla Nehru hospital in Bhopal. The blaze had claimed lives of a number of admitted newborns in November last year.
The CM had then called the fire incident as a result of criminal negligence and ordered fire safety audit of all the hospitals in the state- government and private both.
“Those responsible for the tragedy will not be spared,” CM had warned while discussing the incident with his colleagues in a Cabinet meeting.
The CM assigned the inquiry into the fire incident to additional chief secretary Health and Medical Education Mohd Suleman.
Some heads rolled initially but no major action was taken in regard to the Kamala Nehru fire incident. And now another fire incident took place in Jabalpur, though in a private hospital, claiming at least 8 lives suggesting the health department or the local municipal corporation didn’t act on the CM’s instructions.
The hospital in Jabalpur had just one gate which was engulfed in fire trapping people inside. There are several private hospitals in the state capital city Bhopal itself which have just one gate inviting similar trouble in future, as per doctors.
A senior doctor who didn’t want to be named said, “Since the hospital in Jabalpur didn’t have a fire NOC, the health department apparently failed in its duty to not allow the hospital to admit any patient till the NOC was taken. It’s unfortunate that the health department didn’t act to check such hospitals and their functioning even after the CM’s instructions more than nine months back. Just a few suspensions will not rectify the system.”
Bhopal Nursing Homes Association secretary Dr Randhir Singh is of the view that as far as design of the nursing homes is concerned most of nursing homes follow the norms. There may be certain few nursing homes which are old and situated in congested localities which may not have adopted all the safety measures but they can make necessary adjustments if they wish so.”
A health department authority who didn’t want to be quoted said, “We are looking into all such lapses which might have caused the fire and who are responsible for the same. Chief minister himself has taken cognizance of the matter very seriously.”
