157 hospitals, nursing homes lack fire safety measures in J&K
Tahir Mushtaq
GNS JAMMU, Sept 17: Raising question mark over the safety measures of the hospitals, majority of the Government as well as private hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir have been found lacking equipment to tackle the fire incidents.
Sources said that a survey conducted by the government with the help of Fire and Emergency Services Department has found that most of the hospitals are poorly prepared for any major fire incident, which could be life threatening for hundreds of patients and people visiting the hospitals.
At the same time, the administration of all the Government hospitals and nursing homes was directed to equip their health institutions with the required firefighting equipment to avoid any untoward incident that results in loss of life and property.
A senior officer said that during the survey across the state, the Fire Department inspected a total of 157 hospitals including Government Medical Colleges of Jammu and Srinagar and their Associated Hospitals and nursing homes and the outcome of the same was shocking keeping in view that there are no fool proof fire alarm system.
"These revelations indicate that authorities of the Health and Medical Education Department, who are at the helm of affairs in the Government hospitals, have never paid any serious attention towards installing fire fighting equipment”, a source claimed.
Sources said that Home Department, the Fire and Emergency Services Department has started preparing specific requirements vis-à-vis fire safety measures both short term and long term for each and every hospital.
After going through the detailed report, government has directed the hospitals and construction companies to have consonance with the Part-4 of the National Building Code which are required to be followed by the hospitals and nursing homes, sources said while informing that National Building Code’s Part-4 deals with the fire safety measures and is quite clear about the safety of life.
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