BY NESHWIN ALMEIDA | NT
MARGAO: Brutal scenes of people choked to death were the visuals on television that gripped the entire nation last week when Kolkata-based AMRI hospital was engulfed in flames and smoke.
The question in the minds of Goans would now be whether hospitals in Goa are safe enough and whether the Margao hospitals maintain proper fire safety standards. Patients complain of narrow approach roads and staircase entrances, which act as hindrances for the fire tenders.
Mr Sagar Utagi, director of Mother Care Hospital at Borda pointed out that the hospital does not deal with any inflammatory substances. He further said that electrical failure is a key player in hospital fires. "In the Kolkata mishap it was the flames from an electrical fire that sparked something flammable. The need is to upgrade to fireproof insulated cables and wires and not overburden the electricity lines and have a good Uninterrupted Power Supply," stated Mr Utagi.
He said that the fire hydrants and hose pipes alone will not solve the matter. "In case there is a fire in an operation theatre or the ICU, nobody will stay back to fight the fire, everybody will start fleeing. Prevention is the best solution to hospital fire threats."
Mr Utagi pointed out that the Mother Care Hospital uses a separate electricity metered line for each flow and has a special circuit box to shut off electricity and move on back-up in case of voltage fluctuations. "Hospitals have to guard from voltage fluctuations which cause short circuits and can burn the entire building. No doubt, fire exits and fire hydrant norms are to be managed but the electricity in a hospital also needs monitoring," he said.
A blessing in disguise for Goans was the state government’s project of underground cabling that gave the state new circuits, new junction boxes, new transformers, new fuse boxes and high quality cables. The government has played its role and now it is the turn of the hospitals to maintain and service the electricity lines in their buildings occasionally, so as to avoid a fire mishap.
Fire Services Assistant Divisional Officer, Mr Nitin Raikar said that a recent incident wherein school children died in a fire mishap in South India has forced the Fire Services department to impart fire-fighting training to children and teachers across schools in Goa. "It is sad that sometimes we learn through our mistakes, but the Fire Services is already working on plans to train hospital attendants, nurses and doctors in case of a fire or other emergencies," said Mr Raikar.
He admitted that the Margao Fire Services based at Aquem does not have a database of hospitals in the commercial capital. Neither do they conduct regular checks on hospitals’ fire-fighting equipment due to lack of staff. "Hospitals need to have ducts, hose reels, water connections and fire hydrants but we do not carry out checks on their equipment unless the concerned municipality asks for the Fire Services’ nod at the time of granting the hospital, the necessary licences," said Mr Raikar.
Margao municipality Chief Officer, Mr J B Bhingui in the meanwhile pointed out that
at the time of granting licences, the respective municipality is not the authority to look into fire safety measures of hospitals. "The municipality’s Acts or rules do not point out that the civic body is the competent authority to look into fire safety measures though the municipality does keep in mind issues like width of the approach road to the hospital while granting licences," stated Mr Bhingui.
Mr Victor Albuquerque of Apollo Victor Hospitals at Malbhat said that the Apollo Victor is a two-floor hospital with multiple and wide corridors and is not a high rise building like AMRI and as such it had no fears of fire mishaps. "We have specific places for our oxygen tanks, and high standards of security are followed at the hospital. Necessary fire exits are created for each wing thus ruling out a chaos in case of a fire. But the Kolkata incident is an eye-opener and as such our hospital is reviewing fire safety and shall upgrade and revamp the existing infrastructure," said a concerned Mr Albuquerque.
A patient at a renowned hospital in Margao said that it lacks sufficient signboards showing way to the fire exit as only one signboard for the fire exit is seen in the main wing. "The hospital also lacks no-smoking signboards at all walls which is another key reason to flames. Another concern is the male general ward is besides the housekeeping room that stores over 200 linen sheets which is adjacent to the hospital cooking area where almost 10 burners are used for cooking daily meals. One would obviously be concerned when linen is just opposite the kitchen with an attached male ward," said the patient.
Another regular visitor to a renowned hospital in Margao showed concern over improper parking, no approach road for a fire tender and the new annex wing with over five floors having over 20 steps as the entrance, with no ramp or road in the vicinity to move a fire truck inside in case of an emergency. "This is something to worry about in a modern super specialty hospital," he said.
Dr Sanjeev Dalvi, Superintendent at the government-run Hospicio Hospital pointed out that the hospital regularly services the fire hydrants and fire extinguishers and refills the cylinders before the expiry date. "Also, the fire services have organised training programmes for our staff, especially those working on the old wing that has a wooden ceiling. Safety standard is the first precaution that any hospital needs to address," pointed out Dr Dalvi.
Moti Dongor resident, Mr Abdul Shaikh spotted five areas in the Hospicio hospital where migrants and labourers who come for treatment ignore the no-smoking signboards and smoke in the corridors of the hospital which could lead to a fire. He also explained that the male orthopaedic ward has a single fire extinguisher of less than 5 kg and added that it would not come handy in case of a huge fire. Mr Shaikh also pointed out that haphazard parking with no monitoring from the traffic cell and the locked main gate are two major problems that Hospicio hospital authorities need to address before a mishap occurs.
