Himachal: Machines defunct, no fire safety at Rampur Civil Hospital

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 16

The Civil Hospital, Rampur, appears to be in a complete disarray. Not only essential equipment like X-ray and CT scan machines are out of order, but also the hospital’s fire-fighting preparations are nearly non-existent.

“No action has been taken for fire safety and the nodal officer is clueless about fire safety aspects,” observed Kiran Bhadana, ADC, Shimla, in the fire audit report. Bhadana is the chairperson of the fire audit committee.

According to the report, inflammable oxygen cylinders have been kept on the hospital premises without proper arrangements and there’s no periodic inspection of electrical installations by qualified engineers. Besides, there’s no automatic or manual fire detection alarm and no evacuation plan in case of emergency.

People suffering

The X-ray machine has been out of order for more than six months, the CT scan is also non-functional. People are suffering because of the laxity of the hospital. —Trilok Bhaluni, A zila parishad member

“It is the only hospital among all Covid-designated medical facilities in the district that has many things lacking on the fire safety front,” said Bhadana during the Shimla Zila Parishad meeting today. The hospital’s X-ray machine is lying defunct for many months now. “The X-ray machine has been out of order for more than six months now; the CT scan is also non-functional. People are suffering because of the laxity of the hospital,” said Trilok Bhaluni, a Zila Parishad member from Rampur.

There’s no shortage of finances with the hospital. The medical superintendent informed the Zila Parishad that the hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti had around Rs 10 lakh available with it. “Despite having the money, you could not fix the X-ray machine. It’s really a sorry state of affairs,” said Bhadana. The MS assured the parishad that the X-ray machine would become functional before December 31.