Kolkata: The state Health department will undertake drives in all government medical colleges and hospitals to assess the existing fire fighting mechanism.
The incident of fire at the iconic MCH building of Calcutta Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on last Wednesday prompted the Health department to look into the fire fighting systems installed in these medical colleges.
The Health department will also investigate the fire fighting system in other medical colleges and hospitals that are situated in the districts. In case of CMCH, the Health department has been waiting for the report which will be submitted by the 6-member team constituted following the incident of fire.
It may be mentioned that the CMCH authorities had claimed there was adequate fire fighting mechanism in the MCH building that houses various important departments including pharmacy that had caught fire.
Rogi Kalyan Samiti Chairman of CMCH, Dr Nirmal Maji, on the day of the incident said this could be an incident of sabotage. Dr Maji further mentioned that renovation works were carried out at the Public Works Department (PWD) a few days ahead of the incident and submitted a report saying there was hardly any possibility of a short circuit.
Taking a lesson from the CMCH incident, the Health department has decided to assess the fire fighting systems in all the five state-run medical colleges in the city. The PWD engineers will also be asked to check and repair any possibility of short circuits. The steps have been taken to iron out the risks of fire. Thousands of patients visit the city's medical colleges on a daily basis while many others undergo treatment at these hospitals.
It may be mentioned that the electrical engineers of the PWD conduct surveillance in all the medical colleges and hospitals in the city from time to time to ensure that such incidents do not happen.
All the other medical colleges and hospitals that are situated in the districts will also be asked to put in place adequate fire fighting mechanism.
The district health officials have also been asked to carry out surveillance in all the hospitals under their jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, after carrying out a preliminary enquiry forensic experts suspect that a computer inside the pharmacy might had been on.
They are investigating if the fire was caused due to the incident.
The fire already had an impact on the health services of the hospital as most of the medicines were destroyed in the fire on Wednesday.