New Delhi: Dozens of sufferers die yearly in hospital fires brought on by components corresponding to quick circuit or flammable chemical substances. These incidents are extra widespread throughout the summers.
To forestall such incidents, Union well being secretary Punya Salila Srivastava on Tuesday held a gathering with high well being officials of states and UTs, and mentioned points like fire prevention in excessive-danger areas of healthcare services, emergency evacuation and affected person safety methods.
Srivastava harassed on the significance of guaranteeing fire and electrical safety in all well being services, whereas highlighting the necessity for fire safety planning, capability constructing of healthcare functionaries, and common mock drills on fire preparedness and affected person evacuation. The well being secretary additionally highlighted the necessity to develop a tradition of safety at well being services.
In search of lively involvement of all states and UTs, the well being ministry has circulated an in depth guidelines, whereas asking them to direct well being services, each private and non-private, to undertake fire and electrical safety audits.
Final 12 months additionally, the Centre had issued instructions to states to perform a complete fire safety audit and on-website inspections of all hospitals forward of the summer time season. In a joint advisory issued to state well being departments and state catastrophe administration authorities, the ministry and the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Authority (NDMA) had stated fire-fighting methods, together with fire alarms, fire smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, fire hydrants, and fire lifts should not simply be current however they need to be absolutely practical.
An evaluation of failures main to fire accidents in hospitals in India since 2010, which was revealed just lately in the Journal of Failure Evaluation and Prevention (JFAP), discovered that quick circuit contributed to 89% of such incidents.
Flammable chemical substances have been the following largest set off, inflicting 4% of the accidents whereas in many different instances the precise trigger could not be ascertained. “Fire will be particularly harmful when it happens in hospitals as a result of many sufferers in any typical hospital usually are not bodily match sufficient to shortly reply to emergency measures, particularly evacuation calls,” the researchers stated.
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