Four, including top medical officials, have been removed from their posts after 12 infants died in a fire in Bhopal’s Kamla Nehru Hospital on Monday. The fire broke out late Monday in the Special Newborn Care Unit of the government-run hospital.
State medical education minister Vishwas Sarang said that Dean of Gandhi Medical College Dr Jitendra Shukla, Hamidia Hospital superintendent Dr Lokendra Dave and Kamla Nehru Hospital director Dr KK Dubey have been removed from their posts. A sub-engineer in the electricity wing, Awdhesh Bhadauria, has also been suspended. This was decided during an emergency meeting held to discuss the fire incident in Bhopal, which was chaired by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The chief minister said the fire at the hospital was a result of “criminal negligence”, and the guilty will not be spared. The CM had ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. “It was our (government’s) responsibility to save these children as they were under our protection. This is a serious incident,” he said addressing state ministers and government officials at the meeting.
The state government also announced that a separate cadre of officers will be constituted for handling maintenance of the hospitals and for the time being, the responsibility of Kamla Nehru hospital has been shifted to PWD, withdrawing it from Capital Project Administration (CPA).
Dept of Surgery head Dr Arvind Chauhan has been appointed GMC Dean, while Dr Dipak Maravi, who was removed last year in the same capacity after a controversy, has been reinstated as Hamidia hospital superintendent.
CMHO Bhopal has ordered all the private nursing homes to furnish fire safety certificates and a permanent certificate from MP Pollution Control Board, warning action in case of non-compliance.
Meanwhile, the Kamla Nehru Hospital claimed that eight more babies have died due to “premature birth and low birth weight” in the last 36 hours.
“As the fire broke out, we took out all the 40 babies admitted at the SNCU ward and four, who were born prematurely and had breathing issues, died due to smoke. The babies were shifted to the first and second floor of the building,” Dr Jyotsana Shrivastava, Head of the Department, Pediatrics, Kamla Nehru Hospital, told a news agency on Wednesday. This can be termed as accidental deaths, she added.
Shrivastava further said that in the last 36 hours, eight more babies have died due to premature birth and low birth weight issues.
Later, state Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang confirmed Shrivastava’s remarks saying the four babies had died within three hours of the incident on Monday. “SNCU wards admit critical babies and all the deaths can’t be connected to the incident,” said the minister speaking to the media.
The minister also said that fire safety training will be imparted to the hospital staff, and the department of medical education will have a civil wing of its own, adding that all the district collectors have been directed to inspect fire safety in hospitals every ten days.
Earlier in the day, Congress working president Jitu Patwari alleged that 14 children had died in the fire, claiming that the hospital administration is hiding facts.
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