Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the suspension of eight officials and directed criminal proceedings against them after a fire killed 14 babies in the neonatal ward of a government-run hospital in the capital, Islamabad.
The prime minister's office issued a statement on Saturday saying Sharif gave the orders after an investigative committee presented its interim report on the fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS). The blaze broke out shortly before 7am (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday in the Mother and Child Healthcare Centre, sparking inside the nursery before spreading rapidly through oxygen outlets fitted at each incubator.
The fire was confined to a third-floor nursery, but officials said it spread so quickly that staff were able to rescue only one baby from among the 15 being cared for there. "The deaths of these innocent children are a heartbreaking tragedy that has left the entire nation grieving," Sharif said in a statement, promising that those responsible would face "exemplary punishment."
The eight suspended officials, named in the statement, include the hospital's executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of its neonatal department, two senior doctors, a security official, and the head of the Capital Development Authority's emergency services. Sharif also approved action against a company responsible for hospital security and its officials, and appointed the National Institutes of Health's chief executive as PIMS's acting director.
The interim inquiry found that the hospital had no meaningful fire safety protocols in place, with only two of PIMS's 13 standard operating procedures addressing fire or emergencies. Supervisory staff were not on duty when the fire started, and only two nurses, a female security guard, and a house officer were in the ward. Emergency services were not called until six minutes after the fire started, and first responders arrived 15 minutes after receiving the call.
The panel also noted a separate fire had broken out at the hospital's nursing hostel just a month earlier, without prompting any safety improvements. One nurse, Razia Noreen, had pulled a child to safety before flames engulfed the ward, and Sharif awarded her the Sitara-i-Khidmat state honor and a cash reward of one million rupees (nearly $3,500).
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal called Pakistan's health system "rotten" and backed a parliamentary investigation, while the government has pledged five million rupees (about $17,700) in compensation to each affected family. The tragedy has sparked widespread outrage and raised questions about negligence and safety standards in public hospitals across the country.
Source: www.aljazeera.com