E-Paper
Fire, oxygen audits of Covid hospitals in Pune district underway
PUNE Following the divisional commissioner’s order that all private and public Covid hospitals be brought under the ambit of a safety audit, work has started in full swing to audit 700 hospitals in the district
PUNE Following the divisional commissioner’s order that all private and public Covid hospitals be brought under the ambit of a safety audit, work has started in full swing to audit 700 hospitals in the district.
District collector Rajesh Deshmukh has also ordered an oxygen audit of all hospitals in the district. As many as 197 hospitals in PMC, 123 in PCMC and all those hospitals in rural areas and cantonment boards will also have to adhere to the directives.
Divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said, “Seven hundred Covid hospitals in the district are being audited and a grant of ₹5 crore has been given to the rural section as part of the updates we have received so far. Fire audit is dynamic process and based on the lacunae pointed out. We are immediately taking remedial steps. Currently the audit is at various stages in PMC, PCMC and rural areas.”
The commissioner had appointed a PMRDA chief Suhas Divase as the head of the seven-member committee which has additional collector Vijay Singh, PMC and PCMC commissioners on board, fire chiefs, district medical officer and PWD department chief,
and is expected that the report is completed in 15 days’ time.
The directions are particularly related to prevention of short circuits as new infrastructure based on electricity supply and oxygen cylinders have been set up to combat Covid-19.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government to ensure municipal authorities conducted an immediate fire audit of all hospitals, nursing homes and Covid-19 care centres across Maharashtra.
“We do not want any more fires in hospitals. Please note, these are very difficult times,” the court said.
“You have to conduct a fire audit of all hospitals and seek compliance earliest. If you are giving admissions, you should save lives there,” the bench headed by chief justice Dipankar Datta stated.
“We have planned oxygen audit of 100 per cent hospitals in Pune district. Professors at engineering colleges have been asked to complete it. They have given training in this respect, about 300 hospitals were also trained,” said Deshmukh.
“Tahsildars should serve these orders by tomorrow (May 11) afternoon to all hospitals in their jurisdiction. Tahsildar Pune city and Pimpri Chinchwad shall take help of municipal corporations to serve the orders, “ he said.
