Evacuation Chairs Australia

HYDERABAD: If the management of Park Healthcare Hospital flouted norms by constructing an additional floor illegally, so have many other hospitals in the city. Not even a handful of the 1,100 private hospitals and nursing homes in the twin cities have even minimum fire fighting equipment. Several requests from corporate hospitals for ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NoC) for constructing additional floors are pending with the fire services department.

“There is no proper entrance and exit facility at most hospitals and no open space around the buildings. None of the hospitals has enough stretchers, evacuation chairs, ramps, etc, to handle emergencies,” said a fire official. GHMC and fire services departments are turning a blind eye to these violations. As per the National Building Code and state government rules, all hospitals, irrespective of height, should have fire fighting equipment. But not even 10 per cent of them are complying with the norms.

The conditions in government hospitals are no different. The premier hospital in the city, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, added three floors to its Millennium Block despite objections from the fire services department. Most hospitals, including Osmania General Hospital, Fever Hospital, Niloufer, Chest Hospital and other district and area hospitals in the city and state have just a few fire extinguishers in place. OGH, Fever Hospital and Nims do not seem to have learnt any lesson from their history of fire mishaps.

The new Gandhi Hospital building has some equipment in place but now they have become mere ‘ornaments’ as none of them is in working condition. “We have reminded the hospital authorities several times to carry out the maintenance but there is no response,” said the official. As per the NBC specifications, it’s mandatory for hospitals to have fire extinguishers, hose reel, manually operated electric alarm systems, wet raiser, downcomer and automatic detection and alarm systems, 50,000 litres underground water tank, terrace tank with a capacity of 5,000 litres.