Govt likely to relax fire safety norms for clinics

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Bhubaneswar: It seems that the state government has learnt no lesson from a major fire mishap at SUM Hospital here in 2016 claiming 30 lives.
Taking a U turn, the state government has initiated the process to relax the fire safety norms prescribed for functioning of clinical establishments in the state.
Health and Family Welfare Secretary Pramod Kumar Meherda Tuesday wrote to Additional Chief Secretary, Home department, Asit Tripathy in this regard.
Referring to the request of President of Association of Private Medical Establishments Forum, Meherda requested Tripathy for categorisation of clinical establishments under Fire Safety Rules, 2017.
The mandatory requirements of fire and life safety measures in all clinical establishments have brought the registration and renewal process of many clinical establishments to a grinding halt, he mentioned.
Batting for relaxation in existing fire safety norms, the secretary urged Tripathy to divide the clinical establishments into two categories. He proposed to relax the norms for smaller establishments like pathology units, dental units and others without changing the rules for others.
“There are more than 1700 registered clinical establishments in the state today. Out of them, at least 70 per cent are very small, like pathology units, poly clinics, dental units and X-ray units among others which mostly run in small rooms and do not have beds or ICUs. Such establishments are not prone to major fire incidents,” the health secretary said.
If the proposal is accepted by the Home department, the government would allow smaller clinical establishments to run by submitting an affidavit only.
The Orissa Clinical Establishments (Control & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1990 and several clinical establishments were registered and renewed under the Act. Until 2015, there was no mandatory provision in the Act for ensuring fire safety and life safety measures.
However, after the tragic fire mishap at AMRI Hospital in Kolkata in 2011, the government made it mandatory by dividing clinical establishments into two categories – one requiring a fire safety clearance certificate and the other requiring a self-declaration in the form of affidavit.
However, in 2017 the government had included all clinics under one category and asked all such health facilities to obtain fire safety certificates for their functioning.