Thaindian News

Mumbai, Dec 13 (IANS) Days after a blaze killed 93 patients in Kolkata’s AMRI Hospital, the Mumbai civic administration Tuesday ordered a fire audit of all public and private hospitals with a mandate to prosecute those which do not comply with regulations, an official said.

The audit will be taken up from Wednesday in all the 67 major state government-run, municipal and private hospitals, with 100 and more beds, said Chief Fire Officer H. N. Mujawar.

“Besides these, there are another 1,550 small clinics around the city, some which have as low as two beds capacity, but priority will be for the big ones, the smaller ones would be taken up later,” Mujawar told IANS soon after the high-level meeting convening by Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar.

The meeting decided that a Fire Safety Committee (FSC) comprising the divisional fire officer, the assistant fire officer and fire station in-charge would be set up at each municipal hospital across the municipal wards.

This committee would be authorized to prepare a “Fire Safety Plan” for each municipal hospital and suggest specific measures required to improve overall hospital management from fire safety perspective, he added.

The suggestions would include suitable changes in construction, power supply, hospital cleanliness, maintenance of fire safety equipment, and preparation of an exit plan during major emergencies.

There was also a plan to provide specialised training to medical officers, employees, and security staff at the hospitals. After the completion of training, mock drills would be conducted to monitor the fire safety preparedness.

Mujawar has been assigned the task of conducting a survey of fire safety equipment at all municipal hospitals, and recommend suitable steps to upgrade the equipment wherever required. He said that notices would be served to hospitals which do not comply with the measures recommended within a time period, and prosecution would be initiated against them.

“The licence of the defaulter hospital could be cancelled if it fails to comply with the fire safety regulations,” Mujawar said, adding that the audit is likely to be completed within a month.

Official sources said that there are 16 general hospitals, 136 nursing homes, three major public hospitals like Sion, KEM and Nair Hospital, and five other hospitals run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation within Mumbai limits.