The district hospital in Noida is not equipped to handle any outbreak of fire on its premises. This inference can be drawn from a recent inspection report of the fire department. Officials, on the other hand, say Noida Authority, which has overall control of the hospital, has not yet issued a tender to procure the necessary fire-fighting equipment, despite repeated reminders. The inspection was carried out by fire safety officer I Kuldeep Kumar on September 11, following instructions from chief medical officer (CMO) Anurag Bhargava. In his report, Kumar has listed various fire safety equipment which are lacking at the hospital or in non-functional state.
While the hospital lacks a smoke detection system, pressurisation system, water tank, exit signage and other important equipment, the hose reel, yard hydrant system and landing valves, automatic sprinkler system and the terrace pump were also found dysfunctional during the inspection. “In the entire building, the exit signage has not been installed while the fire exits were found blocked at many instances,” reads the letter, dated September 15. Even fire extinguishers were found to be empty.
However, chief medical superintendent of the district hospital, Ajay Agrawal, told TOI, “We have written to the project engineer that we require the equipment so that we can get the no-objection certificate from the fire department. Some valves etc were present but many got stolen from the premises.” When contacted, project engineer SC Mishra, said, “The procurement of new equipment is being delayed because it requires a tender. It will be done soon.” Close to 800 people including patients, attendants, doctors and medical support staff had a narrow escape when a massive fire broke out at the trauma centre of King George’s Medical University on July 15. The district hospital in Noida has a daily footfall of over 3,000 patients in the outpatient department.
