By Nageshwar Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, October 19, 2016: Odisha government has learnt little lesson from the fire in AMRI Hospital in Kolkata in 2011, where more than 90 people died.

Five years after the fire incident at Kolkata, a fire in the ICU and dialysis ward of the SUM Hospital in Bhubaneswar on Monday evening left 21 patients dead and over 100 injured.

The government took some half-hearted measures just after Kolkata incident following union health ministry’s advisory to enforce fire prevention safety in all hospitals and made it compulsory for hospitals including private hospitals to obtain a valid Fire Safety Certificate from Fire Prevention Wing of Director General Fire Service as per Director General Fire service.

Just a year back, a minor boy (cancer patient) was killed in a major fire that broke out at the third floor of the new building of state-run Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Research Centre (AHRCRC) in Cuttack, Odisha.

Even the government run hospital has not been following the Fire Prevention / safety Measures as per the Section 38 of Factories Act 1948. Th boys’ lefe could have been saved had the hospital employees been properly trained in the fire safety and operation of fire extinguishers.

But even to-day out of 1774 hospitals and nursing homes, only four have got Fire Safety Certificates in the state. Even then these hospitals and clinics are running with the full knowledge of the authorities as the Directorate of Medical Education & Training (DMET) allowing fresh registration to new private hospital and renewing the registration of any existing private hospital without Fire Safety Certificates from the Director General Fire service in total contravention to law of the land.

Now with the fire incident at Sum hospital becoming national issue, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday said stringent action will be taken against those responsible for the hospital fire tragedy in which 21 people died and many others were injured.

What is shocking most is that the state government did not act even after the Sum Hospital lost its accreditation with the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) two months ago. It was found lacking quality standards, including measures to deal with fire.

NABH Accreditation Standards addresses all the requirements related to hospital safety, risk management, disaster planning, monitoring and evaluation under various chapters. These standards provide a framework for quality assurance and quality improvement and focus on patient safety, employee safety, community and environment safety and quality of patient care.

The fire services department filed an FIR against the hospital authorities for not adhering to its recommendations made during a fire safety audit in 2013 and police Tuesday evening arrested three employees of the Sum Hospital.

Odisha Government has formed Task Force in every district and the Task Force is supposed to inspect Suo-Motu the clinical establishment existing in the district and ensure their proper functioning with valid Fire Safety Certificates. The Task Force has got the power to seal the Nursing Homes found to be in contravention of Odisha Clinical Establishment (Control & regulation) Act, 1992. But the Task Forces of all the 30 districts remain virtually non-functional.

The state health secretary, Mrs Arati Ahuja cited legal hassles for not enforcing the Act. “We are not relooking at the Act and will make it stringent and enforcible”, she said.

A division bench of Odisha High Court, while hearing the writ petition by Private Hospital Association of Odisha, on February 1 this year had asked the private hospitals and nursing home to file separate applications for grant of Fire Safety Certificate or registration with DMET.

Enraged by the lackadaisical approach of the state government, Jayant Kumar Das, an ex-serviceman who served Indian Air Force for 20 years and an RTI activist on Wednesday in a letter petition has knocked the door of the Odisha High Court to order shut down hospitals running without fire safety certificate in the state.

“This order in which the Honourable Judges have given liberty to all Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes to file separate application for grant of the Fire Safety Certificate or registration in DMET shows that it is nothing but to delay the process and give undue relief to the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes with an ill intention and in other word it can be said that this is one type of STAY on the action of the Director General of Fire Service of Odisha against the Private Hospitals (Who are not possessing the Fire Safety Certificate) and the owners the Private Hospitals took the advantages of the said order and did not follow the Fire Safety Precautionary Measures,” the petition says.