American hospital too is no exception

VIJAYAWADA: When it comes to fire safety, carelessness seems to be ‘sole virtue’ of several hospital managements in the city. In order to check fire safety measures, Express team on Wednesday visited some hospitals, including St Ann’s Hospital (American hospital) in Krishna Lanka, the oldest hospitals in the city, Usha Cardiac Centre (YV Rao Hospital) on MG Road, Prasanth Hospital (Eurology centre) and Global Multi-Specialty Hospital and found glaring lapses in fire safety measures. St Ann’s is one of the major hospitals in the city and people from across the district come for the treatment. While there are as many as 700 rooms in the hospital, no proper fire prevention measures are taken up.While there are fire extinguishers in a few wards, no fire alarm, water sprinklers or fire detectors are available. And there is also no emergency exit. Usha cardiac centre, which is known as YV Rao Hospital, which received a notice from fire authorities, is lacking in fire safety equipment. No fire extinguishers are seen at the hospital and no emergency exit found. Prasanth Hospital, a eurology hospital, is also lacking minimum safety measurers and the Global hospital’s cellar is used for the pharmacy and CT scan.