If theres a fire, will you save me, doc?

HYDERABAD: Stung to action by the Kolkata hospital tragedy, civic officials began inspections of fire safety measures at hospitals in the state Tuesday. What they found left them in utter dismay.In Hyderabad, the initiative was kicked off by fire prevention and town planning wings of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) who went to two private corporate hospitals in the city and poked around the premises.Both the hospitals visited, Image Hospital at Ameerpet and Lotus Children’s Hospital at Lakdi-ka-Pul, were found to be short on fire safety measures. More seriously, they were found to be flirting with the very factors that caused Kolkata’s AMRI inferno last Friday, taking the lives of 93 people. If Lotus was found to be in need of upgradation of fire safety equipment, Image had some equipment missing altogether.But here’s the humdinger. According to GHMC additional commissioner (planning) K Dhananjay Reddy: “Both hospitals were found to be using their cellars for storage or canteens.” The AMRI fire was triggered by the use of the cellar space to store oxygen cylinders.Lakshmi Prasad, GHMC’s additional director for fire prevention told Express that in view of the serious lapses found at the hospitals, the Fire Services will issue notices to them. Both buildings are high-rise structures of more than 15 m height, which puts them under the purview of the Fire Services. Buildings less than 15 m tall come under the control of the GHMC.Dhananjay Reddy said the GHMC will issue notices to the hospitals for misuse of cellar space and demolish any unauthorised structure built in it.Tuesday’s foray was the first result of the GHMC’s post-AMRI wakefulness. It will take up inspections of all private and govrnment hospitals, nursing homes and superspecialty institutes in the days ahead, according to GHMC chief M T Krishna Babu. The hospitals will be given one month to fall in line, or else face the consequences.Out of the 580 private hospitals (less than 50 beds) in the city, only 149, or 20 per cent, are said to have installed adequate fire safety equipment, thereby earning a no-objection certificate (NoCs) from the fire service.And this is the situation after a fire accident at the Park Hospital at Somajiguda rang alarm bells about fire hazards at hospitals in Feb.2010.For hospitals with more than 50 beds, or those with five-storeyed buildings, the GHMC issued notices to 91 managements but only 17 installed fire safety equipment and obtained an NoC.Post-AMRI, GHMC and fire officials have been speaking with commando-like zeal about fire safety, threatening sealing and revocation of registrations if hospitals don’t fall in line. But the fact is, hospital laxity was licensed by the officials themselves.