The State Government has asked all District Collectors to identify and issue notices to nursing homes and private hospitals which have not received registration for failing to obtain fire safety certificates. According to a decision taken by the Health Department, the Collectors would instruct these medical institutions to rectify the defects that prevented them from getting fire safety certificates within a given time frame.
A guideline on fire safety measures would be issued for private nursing homes and hospitals within six months. The institutions have to ensure that the guideline is strictly followed failing which they would be penalised or a closure notice would be issued.
The Collectors have been also ordered to conduct surveys to identify any deviation in infrastructure and increase in bed strength by registered nursing homes and private hospitals and report it to Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET). A Health Department official said medical institutions would have to submit a declaration that they are adhering to the fire safety standards. “The Government medical colleges and hospitals have been asked to make fire extinguishers available in every vulnerable place,” he said.
This instruction came in the wake of a fire mishap in Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery department of SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack leading to shifting of 104 patients including 20 from ICU on May 31. The official said tenders have been floated by Works Department for sprinkler systems in medical colleges and they would be functional in six months.
Meanwhile, DG (Fire Services) Binay Behera has written to the Health Department to provide land for establishment of fire stations in three Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals. Each fire station would have 15 staff. Earlier, the Orissa High Court had directed DG (Fire Services) to set up a fire station inside the SCBMCH on a war footing and subsequently, in the other two Government medical colleges.
