Nagpur News.
A mock fire drill was undertaken at Wockhardt Hospital, Shankar Nagar Square on August 6, 2014. The entire fire-drill included the sirens starting to make beeping sounds, a general fire siren, announcements of a fire on the public address system (asking the inmates of the Hospital to evacuate the hospital), doctors, nurses and para-medical staff parading out without any panic, removing the patients (based on the seriousness and severity of the ailment of the patient), transferring the patients to another hospital, ambulances lining up, one after the other with clock-wise precision. It was a remarkable feat indeed.
With the spurt in the population and with limited land available in various cities across India, has led to the abundance of Multi Storied Buildings hosting hospitals. It is this nature of the multi-storied buildings which becomes one of the major potential threats to the safety of the hospitals.
Since fire is one of the major threats that claims many lives, precaution and preparedness becomes vital.
Fire protection is based on the health care facility design and operation must incorporate methods by which a fire can be detected early, contained, fought rapidly and successfully.
The Fire Department has categorized the Hospital buildings under the Group of Institutional Buildings (C1) as per National Building Code of India 2005, Part – 4.
In an exclusive interview with Nagpur Today, Centre Head of Wockhardt Hospital, Nagpur, K Sujata said that the exercise started at exactly 14:15 pm and ended in 14:30 (i.e. exactly 15 minutes).
She said that the mock drill was very successful since the building has six floors and the patients had to be evacuated carefully, keeping in mind the severity of the ailment. She added that all the hospitals in the city should undertake such an exercise on a regular basis. This shows the preparedness of the hospital, medical staff and its para-medical staff. At Wockhardt the identity card of every staff has the do’s and don’ts of Code Red (Emergency Action). It is the responsibility of the Hospital authorities since the inmates of a hospital are patients and cannot walk, run and do other activities and so they have to be carried out.
Sujata claimed that Wockhardt Hospital is the only Hospital in the entire Central India who has been accredited by the National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH). NABH is an Independent body that certifies the Hospital based on 126 Standards and 600 sub-standards.
The members of the Fire and Emergency Services and Disaster Management included Chief of Fire Department S K Kale, S V Bhende, Keshav Kote, S S Raut, P N Kawle, S M Dokre, S M Dahalkar, P S Khandagale, P V Neware and Prashant Sali. The drivers are Sanjay Shambar, Prakash Rane, Shriram Shendre, and others. They not only efficiently evacuated the hospital of the patients but had also successfully transferred them to their sister concern Hospital a few meters away.
