Ahmedabad civic body’s hospitals can be death traps in case of fire

It can't be merely termed as a case of misfortune when three deadly incidents (in three years) where loss of life, panic among patients and huge financial loss of tax payers' money were  witnessed in Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) hospitals.

Scratch the surface a bit and out comes the fact that AMC run hospitals have been prone to fire cases because of ill maintained medical equipment, no concealed wiring in  and  lack of fire proof wires!

When one visits the Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital, which witnessed a deadly fire that gutted its catheterisation laboratory on Saturday, you'll realise that the hospital is vulnerable to more such accidents if denizens come in contact with the open wiring in the old sections of the buildings. Even in the past, questions have been raised about the AMC's electricity department that is responsible for keeping a check on the condition of electrical equipment and wiring.

 Additional chief engineer, electrical department, AC Shah, agrees that concealed wiring in AMC managed buildings are the only safe way to function.

"In the new buildings, we have concealed wiring. But no thought is given to the open wiring in the old buildings. Similarly, no fire proof wires are used in wiring old buildings like in VS Hospital.," said Shah.

Deputy municipal commissioner for AMC hospitals, Dilip Mahajan, however, does not think that concealed wiring would make city hospitals safer in case of fire. Iqbal Sheikh, a Congress corporator and member of the AMC hospital committee, feels that AMC officials do not pay much attention while maintaining such buildings.

 "Why is it that we don't hear about equipment catching fire in private hospitals? Because, these hospitals are well maintained. In AMC, electrical department is supposed to keep a check on wiring of medical equipment in hospitals, but looking at the past record, I suspect equipment and wiring are not inspected properly," said Sheikh.