The tragic fire at a hospital in Jhansi, where 10 newborns were burnt and suffocated to death on the night of November 15, is another grim reminder of the insufficient fire safety measures and a stressed healthcare infrastructure. Worst of all, it is the saddest possible commentary on how human lives do not seem to matter at all in a country that ironically aspires to become a developed nation by 2047.
According to a preliminary official report, the incident was caused by a short circuit in a switchboard, causing fire to spread rapidly, likely also aided by oxygen concentrators, in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) of Rani Laxmibai Medical College. The Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh (UP) formed a committee to conduct a detailed probe to help ascertain if additional safety protocols are required in state-run hospitals. However, incidents such as the one in Jhansi are not isolated cases.
This is the second instance within six months of a hospital fire in an Indian city. In May, six babies died of burns at a neonatal facility that was operating in the national capital without a valid licence and any fire extinguisher or emergency exit. If we go back further, a devastating blaze at a private hospital in Kolkata in 2011 that claimed nearly hundred lives is still fresh in public memory as a textbook case of neglect and absence of basic fire safety mechanisms. These instances clearly show that we have failed to learn in all these years, and because lives are cheap in India hospitals continue to be let off the hook.
Any indifference to fire safety measures at any level — whether by a facility or in interms of supervision by civic authorities — cannot be condoned. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, UP ranked fourth among states in fatalities caused by electrical short circuits in 2022, behind Odisha, Maharashtra, and Bihar. Regular electrical audits in institutions, including hospitals, should be ensured to prevent loss of hundreds of lives every year.
The hospital in Jhansi is one of the largest in Bundelkhand, an underdeveloped hilly region overlapping UP and Madhya Pradesh. Symptomatic of the deficient and overburdened public health care in the hinterland, the hospital caters to thousands of patients daily, and the neonatal ICU had admitted at least thrice the number of its capacity at the time of the fire. It is reminiscent of another shocker in 2017 in the state itself, when a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur gained notoriety and pointed to government negligence as scores of children gasped to death for want of piped oxygen supply.
The most urgent, and long due, steps that could help prevent such disasters include improving the spread of doctors for patients in smaller cities and rural India. Although India meets the World Health Organization norm for a doctor-patient ratio of 1:1,000, in UP one doctor caters to more than 2,000 patients.
Besides, India’s health expenditure remains low, under 2% of the GDP. It needs to be increased and also directed better. For instance, in the past decade close to 20 new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences have been set up across the country. However, many of them suffer from faculty shortage which affects training students in specialities. Experts therefore seek greater focus on building more community health centres and shoring up existing medical colleges.
These are necessary remedies for an ailing healthcare system and to make sure we have the wherewithal to value human life and not merely move on until the next tragedy jolts us again.