Maharashtra starts electrical inspection of Covid hospitals
In the wake of recent fire incidents in hospitals, Maharashtra’s energy department has started safety inspections and audit of electrical installations in government as well as in private Covid hospitals, an official statement said. It adds, “The major area of the inspection and safety audit would be ICUs, AC system and lifts.”
Taking cognisance of recent fire incidents in hospitals, the state energy minister Dr Nitin Raut has asked the Chief Electrical Inspector to audit the electrical safety in hospitals across the state as per the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Along with the electric installation, safety audit of lifts would be also undertaken.
Following the order, the Energy Department has issued circular on April 26 to conduct the safety audit and submit the audit report to the state government. Accordingly, Dinesh Khonde, Chief Electrical Inspector of the State issued an order for such inspection on April 28. The order consists a check list and SOP for inspections. It has been also instructed to follow the Covid 19 lockdown protocol and observe safety measures to prevent infection.
“Following the pandemic the hospitals are overburdened which has created pressure on electric equipments. The continuous load on electric equipment may lead to mishaps and incidents of fire due to short-circuits. If due precautions were taken, mishaps and untoward incidents could be prevented,” said Dr Raut.
The electric inspections would help in finding out the faulty electric installations. The findings would be communicated to the hospital authorities for compliance. The detailed audit reports would then be prepared and local Disaster Management Authority will also be apprised of this report.
“The purpose of the inspection is not to harass anyone or to target any hospital, but to ensure the safety of the patients. Considering the pandemic some of the hospitals have increased its admission capacity which is likely to increase power consumption and subsequently causing extra load on the system. The task is now to bring to the notice lacunae if any to the hospital authorities in time to prevent mishaps,” said Mr Khonde.
“It is mandatory that all Covid hospitals or centres must have standby DG set for electricity supply as this will be useful in case of any power break down. If any Covid centre doesn’t have DG set, then Electrical Inspector shouldn’t give permission to the centre, Khonde instructed to all inspectors
“It is mandatory to get clearance for fire and electric safety for hospitals including lifts and electric installations. The faulty electric installations would be rectified.If height of the building is above 15 meter then they should have all necessary clearances and if they lacking, then Management should be encouraged to get them,” Khonde stressed.
AC system a major concern
Fire incidents in some ICU wards have happened due to short circuit in the AC system in some hospitals in the state. Hence AC system would be inspected carefully.
For the conduct of the audit, Mr Khonde has instructed the concerned electric inspectors across the state through video conferencing held yesterday.
