No fire safety at Kurnool Hospital

Kurnool: Kurnool Government General Hospital seems to be the least safe place for patients. The recent twelve-hour power outage brought to light the hospital’s unpreparedness for untoward accidents such as fires and collapse of the building. After patients, the most vulnerable people at the hospital are its nurses. The abuse of nurses during the night time is a common occurrence.

Mr Subbarao, the Director of Medical Education, said that development of the hospital was constrained by budgets. “You know the conditions in the state. We are doing our best under these circumstances, with resources available. It may not be possible for us to incorporate fire safety measures, as it requires a huge budget.

We have made local arrangements for individual emergencies, though not for fires,” he said. He said that most of the medical colleges and hospitals in the state were very old. “Kurnool Hospital is going to celebrate 60 years of operation, Guntur Hospital is moving towards celebrating 75 years, and the Vizag Hospital is going to celebrate its centenary. They are all old hospitals,” he said.

When asked if patients’ safety was not taken into consideration at government hospitals, the DME said that was not true. “Patients’ safety comes first for us. We have a lot of constraints, and in spite of those things, we are working towards providing safety. We are making representations about these things to the government,” he said.

Kurnool fire officer Kiran Kumar Reddy said that the Kurnool General Hospital was not compliant with fire safety norms. He said that though the Fire Department had sent notices to the hospital authorities, they had not rectified the problems.

“It is surprising to note that none of the government hospitals in the state has obtained a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Fire Department. Though Kurnool Hospital has fire safety equipment, it has not obtained a certificate,” he said.