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AMRI Hospital tragedy has finally woken up both the Government agencies and hospitals themselves in Andhra Pradesh. While the Government agencies have put about 1,000 hospitals in the State capital on notice about meeting safety norms, Association of Super Specialty Hospitals (ASHA) has said it is going to set up a task force to bring in some self-regulation among its member hospitals.
The association pitches for new set of norms, which include fire-resistant dresses to staff and pressurised ventilation (to suck or push out smoke), to make hospitals much safer.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday in the wake of Government warning to hospitals, Dr B. Bhaskar Rao, President of ASHA, said that all (ASHA) hospitals were safe and there was no cause for worry. The association has 43 members in the State, with most of them working out of Hyderabad.
He, however, admitted that there was lack of awareness on bio-medical waste disposal. “For example, you cannot mix waste related to HIV with other bio-medical waste. You need to treat it in the laboratory itself before disposing it off. We are forming a task force to conduct periodical visits to hospitals to check whether they adhere to prescribed norms,” he said.
Workshops
Besides, it would conduct workshops to educate different stakeholders on issues related to safety, handling of fire mishaps and treating bio-medical waste. First in the series would be held before December 31.
He insisted that investments on safety were just 5 per cent of the total project cost and that hospitals never tried to save on this as they spent Rs 60-70 lakh per bed.
Though the city is home to 1,000 hospitals, majority of them do not require elaborate safety measures.
Dr Bhaskar Rao, who is Chief Executive Officer of Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), said training of hospital staff and ensuring their safety are very important to minimise risks in times of fire accidents. “They should be protected first to make them save lives of patients,” he said, citing the example of the Kolkata mishap.
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