The Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA) took strong objection to the move of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation seeking compliance report on Gujarat High Court directives on fire safety from all private hospitals and nursing homes in the city.
AHNA rues the fact that their plea in July 2021 to make them a party to the ongoing case in High court was unheard, depriving them the oportunity to present their point of view on the matter. Taking a strong view, against the complaince of the directive AHNA said that most ICYs and nursing homes would be forced to shut down if these “unscientific” directives are not withdrawn.
During the hearing of a PIL on June 30, the division bench of Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice AJ Shastri of the Gujarat HC had issued directions such as servicing of heavy load equipments such as ventilators, air conditioners once a month apart from directing that the “ICU should preferably be located only on the ground floor and have alternate exits wide enough to roll the beds out in the event of necessity” The directives also effectively prohibited the glass facades by mandating that the “glass facades to be removed forthwith and staircases shall be fully ventilated above the parapet wall”
Taking into cognizance the spate of fire incidents in ICUs across state killings many, the he Gujarat High Court had directed the state “to take immediate steps” to ensure compliance of a order of the court of December 2020 for ensuring fire safety in “hospitals, especially for the ICUs”.
AHNA demanded the policies such as this should be framed by a committee of health experts. “Making ICUs on the ground floor is against scientific reasons as this increases chances of infections among patients. You might save patients from fire but not infections” AHNA president Dr Bharat Gadhavi said. He also added that
ICUs have to be closer to the Operation Theatres as well as Cathlabs, pinpointing that almost all hospitals in the country and abroad do not have ICU on the ground floor.
AHNA cited Consensus Statement on ICU planning and Designing 2020 by Indian Society of Critical care Medical Experts Committee, who has members from reputed Government and private hospitals,
which says “the ground floor should be avoided and higher floors are suitable if elevators are available close to ICU. ICUs should be in isolated areas of the hospitals”
AHNA argued that major fire incidents in hospitals during Covid were due to 100 per cent occupancy, operating of ACs, ventilators and other equipments, along with presence of more inflammable material such as the PPE kit, oxygen and sanitizers.
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