Webinar on Electrical Safety in Hospitals

Webinar on Electrical Safety in Hospitals and Medical Locations (Part – 2)

The webinar will explain about the safety measures to be adopted in Hospitals and Medical locations to get safety of patients, doctors and nurses working in medical locations and fire due to short circuit.

The webinar is specially designed for Bio Medical Engineers and working professionals in Hospitals.

Dr. Vijay Agarwal, President CAHO will make the opening remarks followed by technical sessions by CAPE Engineers. The program is hosted by Mr. K P Dominic, B&G.

Date and Time of the program : 21 Jan 2023 11 Am onwards

Advisory for Minimum Essentials Fire Safety Measures

NABH – Advisory for Minimum Essential Fire Safety Measures for All Healthcare Facilities

NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals And Healthcare Providers) has issued an advisory recently on Minimum Essential Fire Safety Measures to be followed by healthcare organizations in the country.

This was the advisory for Minimum Essential Fire Safety Measures applicable to Healthcare Units under all schemes of Certification and Accreditation offered by NABH. These guidelines are meant to ensure patient safety and in no way absolves the organization of fulfilling its statutory obligations with regard to fire safety while implementing Certification, Accreditation Programs in the country.

The Advisory has listed out the scenarios where a Healthcare Organisation has Fire NOC, has No Fire NOC in place. The content of the advisory released by NABH is shared below for information purposes :

Advisory Content :

When the Healthcare Facility has Fire NOC in place, advisory calls for health facilities to check on the compliance to the minimum essential home Act/DHO fire safety measures are in place and or functioning.

Advisory says when the Healthcare facilities don’t have Fire NOC , following steps have to be addressed by a healthcare organisation :

  • Approval/Registration from local health authority Eg: Nursing home Act/DHO
  • If Fire NOC is not applicable, organisation has to provide valid justification for the same.
  • If Fire NOC is applicable, confirm that the organization has applied for fire NOC and there is regular correspondence (at least once in three months) with fire department which is acknowledged. Any correspondence received from the fire department has to be submitted.
  • In the absence of Fire NOC, Third Party Inspection Certificate should be made available.
  • The third-party audit should provide evidence to suggest that statutory norms are adhered to Any Observation by the third party should have been addressed.
  • The third-party inspection certificate is valid for a maximum period of one year
  • Head of the organization/Promoter to give an undertaking on the organization’s letter-head stating that fire safety measures are in place and adhered to at all times.
  • During assessment, verify that the points in the checklist are in place and are functioning

*NABH prescribes that Fire & Life Safety Inspection Certificates under NABCB accreditation issued by NABCB accredited Type ‘A’ Inspection Bodies for Fire & Life Safety Inspections of hospitals/health care providers shall be in accordance with the following:
a. National Building Code of India
b. Model Bill to provide for the maintenance of Fire and Emergency service for the state (2019)
c. Respective State Fire Safety Rules
d. NABH accreditation requirements for fire safety and applicable statutes
e. Any other applicable statutes.

Such Fire & Life Safety Inspection Certificates shall be accepted in lieu of statutory Fire NOC, only for consideration for the purpose of NABH accreditation. This does not absolve the hospitals/health care providers from complying to Fire NOC requirements/any other extent applicable statutes. It shall be sole responsibility of hospitals/health care providers to obtain Fire NOC, as applicable.

NABCB accredited Inspection Bodies shall be required to issue a final Fire & Life Safety Inspection certificate under NABCB accreditation bearing NABCB Accreditation Mark after the inspection is carried out and satisfactory corrective action and resolution of non-conformities, if any.

NABH accreditation requirements for Fire & Life Safety : (in addition to above)

  1. Firefighting equipment like wet riser, hydrants, auto sprinkler, fire alarm system, fire extinguishers of all types and sizes should be available as per table below (adapted from NBC 2016).
  2. Operational and maintenance plan for firefighting equipment including refilling of extinguishers.
  3. Up to date fire drawings to be available. Where applicable, the fire drawings should also specify the location of fire dampers.
  4. Fire detection and smoke detectors exist across all floors. The detectors shall be tested for functionality at regular intervals, and records maintained.
  5. Central fire alarm system is installed at a location which is staffed 24/7.
  6. Fire exit plan for each floor. Exit door should be openable and free from any materials which will obstruct way.
  7. Fire Exit signage on all floors well illuminated/ self-glowing, as per NBC guidelines.
  8. Emergency illumination system in case power goes.
  9. Designated place for assembly of patients and staff in case of fire.
  10. Mock fire drill records and schedule of conduct of drills.

Minimum Requirements for Fire Fighting Installations

Advisory can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.

Source of the Information :
https://nabh.co/Announcement/Revised%20Advisory%20for%20Minimum%20Essential%20Fire%20Safety%20Measures%20-20.09.2022.pdf

Above advisory says that Healthcare organisations need to obtain a Fire and Life Safety Inspection Certificates from Third Parties – Type A accredited Inspection Agencies accredited by NABCB in accordance with NBC 2016 and various other Regulations as mandated under various statutes, Rules, laws of centre , state etc

Hospitals , Healthcare Institutions have to look out for Type A Inspection Bodies (IBs) accredited by NABCB if they don’t have Fire NOC to seek Fire and Life Safety Inspections. Type A IBs have to obtain necessary accreditation scope as per various regulatory requirements, standards in the country. These IBs may have to seek accreditation as per IAF Code 34 ; NACE Code 71 which addresses the Inspection of Buildings activities

At the moment NABCB Accredited IBs with above IAF Scope are not found NABCB Registry. Few IBs may seek Accreditation under above scope to cater to the requirement specified by NABH in future. Healthcare organisations have to refer NABCB’s Registry for more updates on the accredited IBs list.

It’s a good move to encourage healthcare businesses to show compliance and adherence to Regulatory, Statutory requirements by offering Safety and Assurance to the users of healthcare facilities and Employees as well.

Fire Safety Scenario in Indian Hospitals

Dr Bashyam Srivatsan
Principal Consultant
srivatsan@valueadded.in

In view of the recently reported fire accidents in the country, (both in dedicated Covid Care Centers and other Hospitals, including Nursing Homes), this post captures the latest initiatives from Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt of India to address the fire safety lapses and arrest the rising rate of fire safety incidents in covid care centres in the country.

The urgency of addressing the fire safety norms is triggered by the Apex court on November 27 ,2020 followed by  fire outbreak in the ICU of a designated COVID hospital at Rajkot in Gujarat in which five patients died. Apex Court  had pulled up the states for not taking any concrete action to mitigate the problem despite repeated instances.

The issue had cropped up before the top court which was hearing the matter in which it had taken cognisance regarding need for proper treatment of COVID-19 patients and dignified handling of dead bodies in the hospital.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court that it has directed all states and Union Territories (UTs) to send status report by December 4 on the implementation of fire safety guidelines to prevent fire incidents in hospitals or nursing homes.

Union Home Secretary has directed all the Chief Secretaries of states to ensure due compliance of the November 28 ,2020 directives regarding fire safety guidelines and to immediately re-inspect all hospitals or nursing homes to prevent fire accidents in future.

The government informed the apex court that all states and UTs have been asked to send their action taken reports (ATRs) on the enquiry conducted by them on fire incidents that have occurred in hospitals or nursing homes in the last five years.

All the states and UTs have been directed  by Central Govt to update their respective local building Bye-laws or Fire Service Act and to align and make them sync in line with ‘Model Bill on Maintenance of Fire & Emergency Services 2019’ circulated by Ministry of Home Affairs on September 16, 2019 read with other advisories issued from time to time under National Building Code of India.

NABH (National Accreditation Board Certifying & Accrediting Hospitals & other healthcare organisations for Quality and Safety practices), on its part has asked the NABH accredited & certified Hospitals to send the report by 31st January 2021 covering the following –

  • To review their Fire Safety Plans, policies and equipment and also update the names of designated Fire Safety Officers in case required.
  • To conduct extensive fire safety mock drills and trainings including mock evacuation of critical patients, checking the functionality of the fire hose reel etc.
  • To review and resubmit their updated Fire NOC / application for renewal to the NABH Secretariat. In case NOC is not applicable, as per the state laws, third party audit is to be provided.

The necessary documents must be uploaded in the respective online portals (all accredited Hospitals as well as the HOPE Old Portal Organizations).

HOPE Certified organizations can mail the document with their reference number at admin.hope@qcin.org

Having worked with around 100 plus healthcare facilities in the last one decade, starting from OP clinics, Nursing Homes, Small, Mid, Large Hospitals and upto 1500 bedded Medical College Hospitals etc in South India, we believe that the reasons for rising number of safety incidents are multifold.

We can classify the challenges in implementing Fire Safety compliances & protocols faced by healthcare orgns into following categories –

Infrastructure :

National building code is the base guideline document which specified guidelines for constructing Hospitals. It talks about roof height, staircase, Corridor, Emergency exit etc but very strangely the guideline is silent on constructing a ramp, a mandatory requirement in Hospital building having multiple floors.

Fire system having water storage tank, Hose reels, sprinklers, Fire sensors, Fire Extinguisher, jockey pump, fire pump etc also fall under infrastructure specifications listed in NBC. Unfortunately only very few hospitals have complied with all requirements in letter and spirit.

Manpower:

Dedicated Fire Safety Officer, at least 40% staff trained to handle fire equipments and extinguisher in each shift is lacking in majority of Healthcare organizations as majority of the hospitals don’t even have Safety Officers, Facility Management Teams with necessary skill and competency to handle emergencies.

Training :

Fire Safety training during induction and regular training of existing staff is mostly lacking in many Healthcare organizations.

Mock drills:

Normally conducted during accreditation process but not done on a regular basis to demonstrate the capabilities during real fire emergency scenarios. Safety practices are not inculcated as a culture post certification, accreditation process.

Fire License and Fire NOC :

Fire NOC is obtained by majority of the facilities , but the conditions of NOC are never implemented in totality , hence paving way for very few healthcare organisations obtaining the fire licenses. Majority of the hospitals are still outside this framework.

Way forward to make Safety Practices an Organisational Culture and how to meet the fire safety compliances mandated by statute :

  • Top management commitment is must for budgetary allocation and for right policy decision in this regard.
  • Take the help of fire department personnel or qualified & competent fire safety personnel (listed out in the NBC) to get list of requirements as part of compliances . A third party audit is useful to identify the GAPs in the system.
  • Maintenance or any other staff needs to be given role clarity and responsibility to coordinate with Management, Fire department, Fire equipment vendors and contractors etc to establish the fire safety system in the hospital and meeting all fire safety norms and licenses requirements as mandated as per local laws.
  • Once fire system is established Quarterly training to be given to all staff on fire safety protocols, handling fire safety equipments, evacuation of patient and staff, code red protocols etc
  • Fire Safety training should be made part of induction training programme for all new joiners which is not followed as a HR protocol in many healthcare organisations.
  • Regular maintenance of fire safety system to keep it battle ready.