The Rajasthan government has announced the formation of a 6-member committee to investigate the Jaipur tragedy.
Editorial: The death of 10 patients in a fire in the ICU of Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur is a regrettable incident. Sawai Man Singh Hospital is a government hospital and such a tragedy should be considered an example of government negligence.
The relatives of the deceased patients have also alleged that the hospital staff was informed about sparks coming out of the electric wire in the store of Neuro ICU where the fire started, but the staff ignored this information. An oxygen cylinder in the store room exploded due to heat, due to which the fire spread rapidly and the entire floor was engulfed in thick smoke.
Therefore, it became difficult to evacuate the patients from the ICU. Most of the deaths occurred due to suffocation from smoke instead of heat from the fire. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have expressed grief over the tragedy and expressed their condolences to the relatives of the deceased. Similarly, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma has announced immediate financial assistance to the kin of the deceased and best possible arrangements for the treatment of the injured.
On the other hand, various opposition leaders including former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot have demanded an independent inquiry into the causes of the tragedy and action against those responsible for the negligence. The national record of accidents in hospitals so far shows that this tragedy will continue to be discussed for three-four days and then it will be forgotten.
This has been the case so far. While India is famous for its affordable healthcare services and is considered a bastion of medical tourism, it is also infamous for the number of fatal accidents that occur in government hospitals and trauma centers every year.
International voluntary agencies active in the healthcare sector have repeatedly pointed out this fact and have been requesting the central and state governments to strengthen fire prevention arrangements. But despite such efforts and urgings, neither the ruling class nor the government officials have changed their attitude and thinking that ‘anything goes’. A study conducted by an organization called the International Federation of Doctors (IFD) shows that most government hospitals and a majority of non-government hospitals in India have a complete lack of fire safety equipment.
Automatic fire alarms are not even installed in the buildings of these hospitals. Where they are installed, measures to keep them operational are missing. According to the same study report, from January 2010 to December 2019, 33 major fires occurred in major Indian hospitals with more than 100 beds. 431 lives were lost in these. 77% of these fire accidents occurred in ICUs. This shows how unsafe the electrical wiring inside ICUs can be and how much care is needed. The absence of such care often becomes the cause of accidents.
The Rajasthan government has announced the formation of a 6-member committee to investigate the Jaipur tragedy. This committee basically includes three officers of the level of administrators and executive engineers of some hospitals. In the absence of any judicial officer, this committee seems more of an attempt to cover up the incident than to determine responsibility for the fire.
The Prime Minister and other national leaders have often made claims that the fire safety and disaster management programs of European or American hospitals are on par. The Jaipur tragedy is evidence of the flaws in such claims. This is not rhetoric, it demands accountability.
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