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This story is from January 21, 2021

Bhandara fire incident: Health department orders action against hospital staff, suspends civil surgeon

Bhandara fire incident: Health department orders action against hospital staff, suspends civil surgeon
The fire started due to a short circuit in the control panel of a radiant baby warmer inside the SNCU which spread across the unit due to the inflammable material inside the unit.
MUMBAI: Nearly two weeks after the Bhandara fire incident, in which 10 newborns died at the district hospital, the public health department has ordered action against seven staffers of the hospitals including suspension of the district civil surgeon.
Public health minister Rajesh Tope said that department received the report of the inquiry committee led by divisional commissioner Sajeev Kumar late on Wednesday evening.

After going through the report it has been decided to suspend the civil surgeon Dr Pramod Khandate, medical officer on duty Dr Archana Mesharm and the sister in-charge Jyoti Bharaskar.
While, the pediatrician of the Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) Dr Sushil Ambade, staff nurses who were supposed to be inside the SNCU Smita Ambilduke and Shubhangi Sathvane will be terminated from their service. These three were on contract basis and their contracts have been permitted for negligence while on duty. And the additional civil surgeon Dr Smita Bade has been transferred to a non- executive post.
According to the report, the fire started due to a short circuit in the control panel of a radiant baby warmer inside the SNCU which spread across the unit due to the inflammable material inside the unit.
"The forensic report shows that three babies died due to shock due to burns while the other seven died due to suffocation due to the smoke. There was no nurse present in the ward at the time of the incident and they were seated a bit away from the ward and by the time they could react the entire unit was filled with smoke," said Tope while addressing the media on the issue.

He said that this incident has bared open the lacunae in the system and a committee under health director N Ramaswamy has been set up to conduct an audit and suggest a way ahead to ensure that these incidents are not repeated. "These buildings are constructed by the PwD and are handed over to the public health department to use. When this building was constructed in 2015 it was required for the PwD to ensure that all the fire safety compliance is done before the building is put to use," said Tope.
He also said that an audit of all the district hospitals will be done in the next 15 days including the audit of all medical equipment. "We have also demanded that there should be a separate cell under the building and construction division of the PwD to ensure speedy disposal of maintenance complaints in hospital buildings and also the biomedical engineers who work with the equipment should also be present at the hospital," said Tope.
Setting up of CCTV cameras and even following the national building code for construction of new buildings will also be looked into by the health director's committee.
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About the Author
Bhavika Jain

Bhavika Jain, senior correspondent with The Times of India. While her primary beat is the BMC, she also keep tab on stories relating to other beats like heritage, environment and health. When she is not scouting for news stories, she usually watch films or try out new places to eat.

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