A woman holds her baby who was saved in a fire incident at the Intensive Care Unit at Bhandara District Hospital on Saturday.

 

 

 

The heart-wrenching fire incident at Bhandara’s District Hospital that snuffed out lives of 10 newborn babies has again put a huge question mark on the safety measures in hospital. Many questions are being raised about the alleged negligence that led to this horrificincident. Questions are also being raised at the alleged failure of the staff to follow regulations. As per rule, there ought to be staff duty round-the-clock duty in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit which apparently was not the case in the out born unit where by the time nurse realised and tried to open the door, it was too late. Rule also states that the smoke alarm and smoke sensors should be on at all time.

 

It is being suspected that the short circuit, a probable cause of the fire, must have happened somewhere around 1 am and as smoke started emitting, the efforts to save lives began. By the time help could reach kids, amid smoke and panic, a good 30 to 45 minutes had elapsed. It has also been learnt that the power line in the Neonatal Care unit was tripping for five days, an indication of a possible wiring problem, but allegedly nothing was done. Had the problem been addressed on time, tragic of this magnitude could have been averted. The fire audit of the hospital has not been done, it has been reported.

 

 

 

 

 

CM to visit Bhandara today Taking serious cognisance of the incident at Bhandara, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will be visiting the District hospital. Thackeray will arrive at Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport on Sunday at 12 noon. From there he would go to Bhandara by road. He will pay a visit to Bhandara District Hospital and discuss the issue with the health officers. He would also meet the aggrieved families and console them. The visit assumes importance as Thackeray had been to Nagpur two days ago and now again he is visiting after he got pained by deaths of the new-born.

 

 

 

6-member probe panel formed  Bhandara & Gondia Correspondents Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has constituted a 6-member committee, headed by Dr Sadhana Tayade, Director, Health, and has asked the committee to submit its report in three days. Speaking after his visit to the Hospital in Bhandara, Tope termed the incident as unfortunate and heart-numbing. “I can understand the pain and the suffering of the families of the deceased children. I have constituted the committee to stop such incidents from happenning in future. All people concerned with the incident will be question along with the eye witnesses and stringent action will be taken against the guilty,” Tope said.

 

The Minister was accompanied by Assembly Speaker Nana Patole and Bhandara’s Guardian Minister Vishwajeet Kadam. Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Divisional Commissioner, Sandeep Kadam, District Collector, Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, Health Deputy Director also were present on the occasion. Tope had a word of praise for nurses and wardboys of the hospital who immediately came to the rescue of children and helped in saving lives. After inspecting the ground situation, Tope held a meeting with District Civil Surgeon and officials concerned. Tope and others visited the home of Geeta Vishwanath Behre, a resident of Bhojapur in Bhandara tehsil who lost her child in the fire. Consoling the grieving family members, Tope and others handed the family a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Fund. Earlier, Amit Deshmukh, Medical Education Minister also visited the hospital. Others who visited the hospital Minister of State for Health Rajendra Patil Yedgaonkar , Minister for Aid and rehabilitation Vijay Wadettiwar, former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Guardian Minister Dr Parinay Fuke, Chandrashekar Bawankule, MLA Narendra Bhondekar and MLA Raju Karemore.

 

They saw the things there and took stock of the situation. All the leaders have express grief over the horrendous incident and demand through probe into it. Meanwhile Minister for Health Rajesh Tope has announced immediate aid of Rs. 5 lakh each for the parents of the victims from Maharashtra Government . Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also spoke to the authorities concern and took stock over phone. Minister Wadettiwar has promised to enquiry as to for what reason the proposal for the installation of modern fire equipments was remain in pendency.