Pvt hospital staff to be trained in handling crisis

Vadodara: Training imparted to the staff of SSG Hospital last week to handle emergencies averted a major tragedy on Tuesday night.
Now, the fire department has planned to train staff of other Covid-19 hospitals in the city in batches so that they can also act in time, in case an emergency takes place.
On Wednesday, fire officials got in touch with administrators of around 88 private hospitals treating coronavirus patients to send their staff for training from September 11 to 13 in batches. “The staff will be trained in prevention, separation, evacuation and evacuation drill,” said fire officer Amit Chaudhari. He added that staff will undergo a two-hour long theoretical training on response to emergencies.
“We will be calling 20 to 30% staff of all private Covid-19 hospitals and train in batches at auditorium of Baroda Medical College,” said Parth Brahmbhatt, in-charge chief fire officer. Incidentally, on Tuesday night before the first batch of fire fighters arrived at SSG Hospital, the staff had managed to control the fire and evacuated the patients. “The staff handled the situation well as they did not let the fire spread further through the electric plug board,” added Brahmbhatt.
Interestingly, when the 400 staff were being trained, none of them had any knowledge of the firefighting equipment. “They were aware of the fact that fire extinguishers are present in the building, but they were under the impression that these were for firemen. The staff members told us that they just have to run out when fire takes place and firemen after entering the scene will use these extinguishers to douse the fire,” said a fire department source.
“The drill that took place last week has been effective as the staff used their presence of mind and evacuated patients in time. It also played role in ensuring that fire did not spread in other parts of the building,” said senior IAS officer, Dr Vinod Rao, who has been appointed as officer on special duty for Covid-19. Sources said that had tragedy on Tuesday night escalated, it would have been a massive task to shift the patients to other buildings within SSGH or other hospitals. On Tuesday night, 280 patients were undergoing treatment in the building.