Officials address the workshop on hospital safety in Patna on Wednesday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

Patna, Jan. 18: Most hospitals in the state lack proper fire safety arrangements such as right type of extinguishers, emergency exit gates and proper installation of safety devices.

These were among the issues raised at a state-level workshop organised on hospital safety, preparedness and mass casualty management at State Institute of Health and Family Welfare here today.

Health experts and medical superintendents from various districts took part in the workshop organised by Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) in association with the department of health and family welfare.

“Fire safety devices in most of the hospitals in Bihar have been installed as a formality. Though the hospitals have smoke detectors, they lack manual call point. Even if the smoke detector triggers the fire alarm at the central server, the absence of a manual call point would lead to delay in identifying the area from where the fire started. Similarly, most of the hospitals have kept small fire extinguishers, weighing 10kg to 15kg, which can be used from a distance of not more than 5ft, which is a very short distance in case of a major fire,” said T.N. Pratap, a freelance fire safety consultant. He said hospitals should keep fire extinguishers weighing more than 50kg mounted on trolleys, rather than fitting them to the walls.

The workshop was organised by BSDMA as a part of “Earthquake Safety Week-2012”, being observed from January 15 to 21.

Anil Kumar Sinha, the vice-chairman of BSDMA, iterated that the workshop is significant if one remembers the recent fire tragedy at Calcutta’s AMRI Hospitals. “This workshop has been organised with the objective of creating an awareness on planning and response in case of mass casualty in health establishments,” he said.

Suggesting corrective measures to be adopted in case of a fire, Pratap said water should not always be used to douse it. “Water can only be used when fire breaks out from ordinary materials, such as cloth, wood, rubber. Water should not be used in case a fire breaks out from electronic and electrical equipment. Carbon dioxide-based foam should be used to douse the fire in such cases. Dry powder-based extinguisher should be used for dousing fire from electrical equipment,” said Pratap.

Fire safety apart, A.S. Arya, a member BSDMA and former national seismic advisor, delivered a presentation on seismic safety of non-structural elements and instruments in hospital buildings. “Non-structural elements include doors, staircase, furniture, medical equipment, chemicals and other items, which do not carry the weight of the building. These occupy 80 to 90 per cent of the buildings. A majority of the damage, including economic loss in case of an earthquake, is because of these elements. However, this can be reduced if necessary preparations are taken,” he said.