The hospital in Bharuch — where 18 persons including 16 Covid-19 patients and two nurses were killed in a fire incident — is one of the 625 designated Covid-19 hospitals, among 1,517 inspected so far, which doesn't have a valid fire NOC, an inspection by the Gujarat fire department has found.
These hospitals have been issued notices to take action for obtaining the necessary NOC.
The state government has claimed in its finding that a day before the accident in Bharuch, a team of fire officials had visited the hospital, run by a trust, but was reportedly not informed about the Covid-19 facility housed in a new building near the existing hospital.
"Team of local fire services comprising of different sets of fire staff visited the hospital housed in the old building on 30/04/2021 morning for inspection and training, but the said team was never told about the commencement of the additional facility for treating covid-19 patients by the trust in the new building located in nearby area. Unfortunately, the fire incident in question occurred on the same fateful night/early morning," an affidavit filed in Gujarat high court on Monday stated.
It alleges that the trust that runs the hospital, named Patel Welfare Hospital, "appears to have started using the ground floor of the new building near the old building as a Covid facility without any intimation to Bharuch nagarpalika, which manages Fire service, and that, therefore, the local fire service was not at all aware of such development."
As on April 30, the hospitals had 44 patients under treatment. The affidavit filed in the High Court in response to a petition filed by advocate Amit Panchal states that the fire broke out between 12:30 am and 12:45 am in the ICU.
It said that the primary cause of the fire "appears to be a spark in the ventilator near bed nos-5 and 6 in ICU. The PPE kit of the nurse standing besides it caught fire, which quickly engulfed whole of the ICU, because of the presence of inflammable materials like sanitizers, plastic gloves, plantic dust bins, PPE kits....whereby all the 12 covid patients admitted in ICU and four other patients admitted in HDU-2 (high dependency unit) as well as two on duty staff nurses lost their lives..."
Government waiting for "opportune time" to take action
Earlier in August 2020, eight Covid-19 patients had been killed after the fire broke out in the ICU ward at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad. Three months later, five more patients were killed in Rajkot's Uday Shivanand hospital. Following criticism, chief minister Vijay Rupani appointed former Gujarat high court judge D A Mehta commission to probe into the incidents who submitted his findings on March 30.
The affidavit stated that "opportune time has not arisen for taking any action based upon the recommendations of commission of inquiry." The reasons, the affidavit reveals, " the reports are yet to be tabled in the state assembly.
"There was no scope on the part of opponent no-1 state government to table the reports for more than one reason.... the study of both the reports has been underway, action taken report is yet to be prepared by state government, no sooner the study of both the said reports is over, and the session of legislative assembly got over on1 April," the affidavit claimed.