Hyderabad: 350 illegal hospitals in city get GHMC notices

Hyderabad: Two days after a blaze in a children’s hospital in LB Nagar killed an infant and injured four kids, authorities on Wednesday drew up a list of 350 illegal hospitals and sent notices to them for rampant violation of norms.

Viswajit Kampati, director, enforcement vigilance and disaster management (EVDM) wing of GHMC, told TOI that 1,500 hospitals were under the civic body’s radar and over the next three days, officials would conduct safety assessment in all hospitals in GHMC limits.

“Even government hospitals will not be spared,” said Kampati. The crackdown was launched after municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao asked EVDM to go hard on erring hospitals.

“While 350 hospitals lacked proper permissions, most of the other hospitals flouted building approval plans,” said a top GHMC official.

In the wee hours of October 21, a fire tore through an illegal floor of Shine’ Children hospital, killing a four-month-old baby boy and injuring several others. Waking up after the incident, authorities say, setting up diagnostic centres, X-ray machines and reception counters in cellars is the most commonly flouted norm by hospitals. Senior officials said that several hospitals also lacked fire safety equipment, illegally collected parking fee and disposed of waste unscientifically. “Some top hospitals are in the offenders’ list,” the official said.

Officials said the hospitals would be served with notices, asking them to submit documents, including occupancy certificates. “The details mentioned in the documents will be crosschecked by EVDM officials. Once we manually inspect the hospitals, we will identify the loopholes and set a deadline for the managements to rectify them,” the officials said.

Kampati warned that the health centres would be sealed if they failed to take remedial measures. Of the 4,200 healthcare centres in Telangana, 1,500 fell in GHMC limits.

Kampati said that they had planned inspections in three phases. “In the first phase, we cracked down on pubs and bars and in phase II, schools and coaching centres were covered. Before we could launch inspections in hospitals, the incident happened,” he added.