Two days after eleven Covid-19 patients died in a major fire in the ICU of the Ahmednagar Civil Hospital, the state government on Monday evening announced the suspension of civil surgeon Dr Sunil Pokharna and three others, while the services of two nurses were terminated on grounds of gross negligence and dereliction of duty.
Health minister Rajesh Tope tweeted: “Dr Pokharna, medical officers Dr Suresh Dhakne and Dr Vishakha Shinde, and staff nurse Sapna Pathare have been suspended. Staff nurses, Asma Sheikh and Channa Anant, have been terminated from their job . The action has been taken based on the information regarding the tragic incident of fire at the district hospital.”
Eleven Covid-19 patients were killed in the fire which took place at 11 am in the ICU located on the ground floor of the district hospital on Saturday.
As many as 17 patients, many of them senior citizens and some on the ventilator, were undergoing treatment in the ward when the fire occurred. Hindustan Times on Sunday highlighted a lack of funds that prevented the Ahmednagar Civil Hospital management from equipping the hospital with necessary fire safety equipment, though a fire safety audit was carried out in the facility.
The fire brigade department’s audit, conducted between the last week of February and March, had recommended that a fire safety system with sprinklers and a pipeline be installed in the hospital. However, a lack of funds prevented the hospital administration from finishing the task. Barring fire extinguishers, the other safety measures that report had suggested after the fire audit were found missing when fire broke out.
{{/usCountry}}The fire brigade department’s audit, conducted between the last week of February and March, had recommended that a fire safety system with sprinklers and a pipeline be installed in the hospital. However, a lack of funds prevented the hospital administration from finishing the task. Barring fire extinguishers, the other safety measures that report had suggested after the fire audit were found missing when fire broke out.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier this year, there were a series of mishaps at various hospitals in the state. It included a blaze in a Sick Newborn Care Unit in Bhandara in which 10 newborn infants died after a fire broke out in the unit. In March, a fire in a Bhandup mall claimed 11 lives in a dedicated Covid hospital located inside the mall. In April, when a severe oxygen crisis had hit the country, a tank supplying oxygen to Covid patients on ventilators in a Nagpur hospital, leaked and led to the death of 24 patients