After the tragedy at the Kamala Nehru hospital in Bhopal where 4 infants lost their lives due to faulty fire safety equipment, the District Administration of Gwalior has served notice to all government and private hospitals in the district to get fire safety NOC. The private hospitals have been given 15 days to get the NOC failing which strict action will be taken.
According to various sources, the fire safety equipment installed at the Kamala Nehru hospital in Bhopal was outdated and not working properly. The Bhopal tragedy has sent alarm bells ringing across the Gwalior Chambal division. The buildings of the 150 year old JH Group of Hospitals, the biggest hospital group in Gwalior Chambal division are in a dilapidated condition and are ill-equipped to handle any major fire tragedy. In fact all the hospitals in the division are ill-equipped to handle such tragedies. It is a fact that the tragedy will be bigger than the one in Bhopal if fire breaks out in any government or private hospital in Gwalior.
Speaking to media persons, Dr R K S Dhakad, Superintendent of JH Group of hospital said that since the buildings in JH are more than 150 years old it is not possible to install any fire safety equipment there. He said that instead the hospitals have sufficient number of fire safety cylinders to meet any situation.
Dr Girish Shankar Gupta, Superintendent of the Super Specialty hospital said that the hospital has written to Gwalior Municipal Corporation about the fire safety equipment and fire safety cylinders for the hospital. He added that the expired cylinders in the hospital will be soon refilled by the PWD department.
Dr Manish Sharma, CMHO of Gwalior said that inspection will be conducted in all the government hospitals and a report will be submitted to the DA within 7 days.