Hyderabad hospitals lack fire safety measures amid rise of COVID-19 patients

HYDERABAD: Around 1,500 hospitals and nursing homes in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits lack proper fire safety measures. On Saturday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao issued directions to review the status of the fire safety measures at hospitals in wake of fire accidents in other states claiming the lives of COVID-19 patients.

The Chief Minister has also instructed Telangana health department officials to take measures to avoid fire accidents. Fire engines have to be placed at Gandhi Hospital and Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences.

There as many as 1,618 hospitals in six zones under GHMC: Secunderabad (268), LB Nagar (461), Charminar (248), Khairatabad (316), Kukatpally (34) and Serilingampally (291). Gandhi Hospital, which is one of the major government hospitals where COVID-19 patients are admitted, doesn’t have the required fire safety measures. 

Official sources said a majority of the hospitals lack fire safety measures owing to the absence of periodical checks by the Fire Department and Directorate of Enforcement Vigilance and Disaster Management, a wing of GHMC.

A few hospitals where fire safety equipment was installed a few years ago has missing equipment, including absent hose reels, fire hydrant systems, sprinkler system and fire extinguishers. Two years ago, the MAUD had instructed the GHMC to conduct an audit of fire safety measures in hospitals, nursing homes and slapped notices on them, but there has been no progress in this regard.