In the wake of the tragic fire at a Vivek Vihar nursing home, Delhi Health Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj declared that no culprit will be spared, irrespective of their status. Two cases had already been registered against the nursing home owner which are pending be for the Courts. The Delhi Health Minister announced new safety regulations for nursing homes below nine meters height as well , mandating water sprinklers and smoke detectors, and directed all CDMOs to conduct random inspections. He also mandated fire audits for all private and government hospitals, with compliance reports due by June 8, and highlighted plans to recommend bravery awards for two nurses and five citizens who saved children’s lives. Additionally, the ongoing oxygen refilling processes in nursing homes will be investigated.
Detailing on the meeting of the Health department in the wake unfortunate fire incident in a nursing home of Vivek Vihar, Delhi Health Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “On Saturday, at around 11:30 pm, a baby care centre in Vivek Vihar, where newborn babies were kept, caught fire in which many small children died. I was not informed about it by the department (health) on the 25th. On the 26th, I got the information through the media in the morning, so I called the Health Secretary but could not talk to him, so I went to the accident spot myself. Yesterday too, I called the Health Secretary several times throughout the day, and sent many messages, but did not get any information from him.”
The Delhi Health Minister added that today he called a meeting of the health department officials, in which the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and Special Secretary of Health were present. According to the information given by them till now, this hospital was registered to run a 5-bed nursing home from 2021 to 2024, and this registration also expired in March 2024. They had applied for renewal in February, and due to a lack of documents, they were given a ‘deficiency memo‘ that they had to submit more documents.
He continued, stating, “The owner of this hospital also runs another similar hospital in Paschim Puri. Cases have been registered against him twice in different incidents. These cases are going on against him in Karkardooma Court and Tis Hazari Court. A surprise inspection was done in which deficiencies were found, so a case was registered against him. Once he was found running the hospital without registration, a case was registered against him. It is expected that soon the court will give its verdict against the owner of this nursing home in these cases and he will be given a severe punishment.
Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj, while pointing out a very shocking thing regarding this fire incident that happened on Saturday, said that there is a suspicion that the work of refilling oxygen was going on on the lowest floor of the nursing home. “We are also investigating this, if any such work was going on there, then does the hospital administration have its license and if not, then on what basis was this work going on in the hospital and by whom was this work being done, this is being investigated. Because fire spreads very quickly due to oxygen, therefore the work of refilling oxygen cannot be done everywhere, there are some provisions for this, permission has to be taken from the government for this.”
The Health Minister mentioned that there is a rule that hospitals with height of less than 9 meters do not require fire NOC. This is the reason why this hospital also did not have a fire NOC. Given this incident, we have given instructions that all hospitals, whether single-storey or double-storey, must have all safety arrangements to deal with fire in their hospitals. It will be ensured that water sprinkler systems and automatic smoke detectors are installed in all hospitals irrespective of their height so that in case of any such incident, the fire can be extinguished immediately by the water sprinkler system and any major accident can be prevented from happening.
“From time to time, the government has taken steps to prevent such accidents. On 24 April 2024, instructions were issued to all private and government hospitals in Delhi for fire preparedness. Again, on 8 May 2024, directions were also given by the Health Department to all government and private hospitals in Delhi to conduct fire audits once again. In today’s meeting, instructions have been issued that all government and private hospitals should submit the compliance report of the fire audit of their respective hospitals by 8 June, so that it is ensured that the arrangements to deal with incidents of fire in all hospitals have been thoroughly checked. Along with all these preparations, we have also ordered the hospitals to check their electrical systems, because in the summer season, incidents of fire are often seen due to short circuits,” He stated.
Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj informed, “To prevent any such accidents in future, we have issued instructions to all CDMOs to conduct random inspections of all private hospitals and nursing homes in their respective areas and keep checking the adequate arrangements for dealing with fire accidents and other accidents in those hospitals, so that if any deficiency is found, it can be rectified in time and any kind of accident can be prevented from happening.
Sharing a very commendable point related to this fire incident in Vivek Vihar with the journalists, Minister Shri Saurabh Bharadwaj said that at the time of this accident, two nurses present in the hospital and five local citizens (RWAs) there put their lives at stake to save the lives of these children, which we feel is a great lesson for the society. “We will propose the names of all these people for the bravery award and will request the government to give bravery awards to all these people for their courage. All the people who died in this accident are generally from the poor section, so keeping this in mind, we have also recommended the Revenue Department to give compensation to the accident victims.
Given the increasing heat in Delhi, the Delhi Health Minister said that the heat waves in Delhi are increasing a lot, given this situation, an advisory has already been issued to all the hospitals, and along with that a new advisory is being issued to all the hospitals. In view of the increasing heat waves, two beds each in all the 26 hospitals of the Delhi Government, and five beds in Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Hospital (LNJP) have been reserved for patients suffering from heat waves.
