Ahmednagar hospital fire: Medical officer, three nurses arrested

Pune: Three days after 11 Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Ahmednagar civil hospital, the city police on Tuesday arrested a woman medical officer and three staff nurses on charges of causing death by negligence

Pune: Three days after 11 Covid-19 patients died in a fire at the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Ahmednagar civil hospital, the city police on Tuesday arrested a woman medical officer and three staff nurses on charges of causing death by negligence.

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The staff have been identified as medical officer Dr Vishakha Shinde and nurses Sapna Pathare, Asma Shaikh and Channa Anant who were arrested under Sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Manoj Patil, superintendent of police, Ahmednagar said, “The accused have been arrested and interrogation is on in the case. There is prima facie negligence charge against them which is investigated.”

The state government had on Monday suspended Ahmednagar district civil surgeon Dr Sunil Pokharna, medical officers Dr Suresh Dhakne and Dr Vishakha, and staff nurse Sapna. Services of Asma and Channa were terminated.

“Dr Vishakha Shinde was on duty in the Ahmednagar civil hospital on November 6 but she failed to report the incident. As far as the other three staff nurses are concerned, it has been revealed during the investigation that they were outside the ICU when the fire occurred,” the FIR stated.

According to the police, the accused were not supposed to leave the ICU. A staff nurse’s primary job is to safeguard the patients in the event of a blaze at the ICU, said a senior police official. Relatives of the patients had to rush to the ICU to save their near and dear ones while all these staff nurses were waiting outside. The tragic deaths had prompted relatives to level serious allegations of unprofessional conduct and laxity by hospital administration.

The government has formed a probe committee under divisional commissioner, Nashik range to look into why firefighting systems were not in place when the fire broke out. The fire audit carried out during March had recommended installation of equipment in the hospital to deal with fire incidents.