Hospital fire: Safety norms violated, staff did not act fast, says chargesheet
New Delhi, July 24
The Delhi Police filed a 796-page chargesheet in East Delhi’s private neonatal hospital fire incident and observed that the hospital was running without fire safety devices and staff did not act swiftly when the blaze began.
On May 25, a massive fire broke out at a private children’s hospital in East Delhi’s Vivek Vihar, leaving seven newborns dead.
The officials of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) had said the blaze broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital around 11.30 pm, which soon spread to two other adjacent buildings. Due to the fire, many oxygen cylinders kept in the two-storey building exploded, which damaged the adjacent buildings.
Two men — the owner of the hospital, Naveen Khichi, and a BAMS doctor, Akash, who were on duty on the day of the incident, were arrested in connection with the case.
The chargesheet was filed at a city court on Monday and has cited the statements of 81 witnesses along with forensic reports.
“During the investigation, we checked a total of eight points about the statutory requirement to run NICU and the norms which were violated by the hospital. Regarding fire safety, there is no document available to show the safety measures that have been implemented by the hospital. The hospital had the permission to function with five beds but was running with 12 beds,” said a senior police officer, referring to the chargesheet.
Documents received from the Directorate of Health Services, Delhi, prove that the nursing home was granted a licence to run the NICU for five beds in 2021 for three years. The renewal application was under submission with the DGHS.
The officer said only BAMS doctors were deployed to take care of infants admitted to NICU. No qualified nurses were deployed, the officer said, adding that it is a must they must possess minimum qualification of General Nursing and Midwifery along with DNC registration.
The police observed that at the time of issuance of a licence, the accused gave a declaration that they would have five oxygen cylinders of Category B type and 15 cylinders of Category D type.
However, at the time of the incident, there were 31 oxygen cylindersin the hospital, which violated the declaration submitted by the hospital to the authorities, the officer said. These cylinders were stored inappropriately and exploded when the blaze started.
“Relying upon the statements of witnesses recorded, sufficient evidence has come on record against the accused Khichi and Akash for the death of the seven infants by their known act of running a hospital for NICU beyond permissible beds, without qualified RMO and nurses, without fire safety devices and not acting swiftly in the event of fire,” the chargesheet said.
The chargesheet said the structural design of the nursing home was not equipped for an emergency. The accused kept inflammable material, like bundles of old papers and wooden material, and their presence aggravated the fire.
