Fire safety goes for a toss at Chandigarh govt hospitals

In sheer disregard to the safety of patients and staff, not just PGIMER, even other major government hospitals in Chandigarh do not adhere to mandated fire safety protocols.

Despite stringent regulations outlined in the National Building Code (NBC) of 2016, critical government hospitals in the city, including Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16; Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, and the civil hospitals in Sectors 45, 22 and Manimajra, continue to operate without essential fire safety equipment and certifications.

Shockingly, only the South Campus of GMCH in Sector 48 possesses a fire safety certificate, also set to expire on May 10 this year.

As per NBC, it is mandatory for all buildings taller than 15 metres to have a fire safety certificate from the local civic body. The code also makes fire safety certificates mandatory for residential buildings inhabited by more than 20 people.

In low-occupancy categories, the buildings that need the certificate include assembly, institutional, educational (more than two storeyed and built-up area exceeding 1,000 square metres); businesses (where plot area exceeds 500 square metre), mercantile (where aggregate covered area exceeds 750 square metre), as well as hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, underground complexes, industrial storages, meeting/banquet halls and hazardous occupancies.

To obtain the NOC, the buildings must have fire extinguishers on all floors, automated sprinkler system, escape routes sans obstruction, natural ventilation and lighting, and furniture with flame-resistant material. Besides, dumping of any sort of waste material or volatile or flammable liquids is prohibited.

“Several hospitals, including GMCH-32, GMSH-16 and the civil hospitals in Manimajra and Sector 45 had applied for the fire safety certificates. But when inspected by the fire department, the fire safety equipment was found to be inadequate as per norms. Hence, they were denied the certificates and proper lists of observations were sent to the hospitals for compliance. Only the Paediatric Centre at GMSH-16 was issued a certificate, as all measures were satisfactory,” said MC officials.

“The civil hospital in Sector 22 has not even applied for the fire safety certificate. On inspection, it was found that no hospital has installed automated sprinkler systems and also lacked fire extinguishers on all floors. Other violations were also detected,” the officials said, adding that the fire department had sent several reminders to hospitals, but they continue to give fire safety the go-by, putting people’s lives in jeopardy.

Thousands of lives in jeopardy
A 570-bedded hospital, GMSH-16 records a daily footfall of around 4,000 patients in its out-patient departments (OPD) and around 400 patients in the emergency wing.

The bigger GMCH-32 is a 1,000-bedded hospital, catering to around 3,000 patients in OPDs and 300 patients in the emergency ward.

With PGIMER having a fire safety certificate only for one of the total 17 buildings, Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had on Monday directed the hospital authorities to comply with the National Building Code for obtaining fire safety certificates to ensure the safety of patients and staff.

Despite five fire incidents in the past six months, the hospital has not learnt any lesson. Hindustan Times