Fire at hospitals

The loss of 15 lives in four days in fire at two hospitals — in Ahmednagar and Bhopal — must stir the conscience of the nation and lead to accountability, penalty and actual enforcement of safety norms in public and private buildings in the country. The death of four newborn babies in the fire at the children’s ward of Bhopal’s Kamla Nehru Hospital is heartbreaking. After electrical sparks at a ventilator, a fire broke out and caused confusion and panic. The hospital staff and attendants managed to remove 36 of the 40 newborns from the ward, but four infants died while the condition of some others is stated to be serious. Eyewitnesses report that the firefighting equipment was dysfunctional and the fire extinguishers were empty or faulty — this is shocking, but it would not shock anyone who has any experience of visits to government buildings or hospitals.

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When it comes to fires in hospitals, this year has been particularly bad as hospitals have been overburdened due to the Covid-19 pandemic and have had to expand in a hurry, causing, among other things, greater laxity in laying of infrastructure. Also, due to the pandemic, there is more inflammable material in hospitals — such as sanitisers and disposable safety equipment made of synthetic material — and higher oxygen content in the air. The ICUs need to be kept sterile and thus are completely sealed against ventilation, resulting in life-threatening fumes overpowering the helpless patients. In March-April this year, around 60 deaths were caused by hospital fires, more than half of them in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

However, it would be incorrect to lay the blame for the fires solely on stress on hospitals due to the pandemic. The fact that fires have been reported from across the country shows that indifference to safety norms is a national trait, and this is exacerbated by our native fatalism — that what will be, will be. Ten years ago, in December 2011, 89 lives were lost in a terrible fire incident at a Kolkata hospital. Investigation laid bare lapses, including in storage of medical waste and chemicals. In the immediate aftermath of this, random, unofficial audits at hospitals across the country exposed poor safety practices. Sadly, our desensitised polity and society, after a bit of handwringing, forget such horrors.