NEIGRIHMS safety under scanner following series of cracks

SHILLONG: Hospitals in the state are under scrutiny as far as ensuring safety and security of the patients are concerned  following the 6.7 tremor on the Richter scale that shook  the city and parts of the sate along with the rest of the Northeast on Monday.
The safety of the seven-storied premier medical-institution of Northeast, NEIGRIHMS has come under scanner with the Institute developing a series of cracks on Monday following the earthquake.
However, there were no reports of any cracks of buildings in other hospitals elsewhere in the state.  Cracks mostly appeared at the general block and private wards at NEIGRIHMS.
The pillars of Casualty and Diagnostic Block where ICUs and OTs are also bore cracks. Sources from NEIGRIHMS said that the cause of concern is that NEIGRIHMS has not adopted the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for disasters as there was chaos following the earthquake with staff, doctors running out. The patients, who were able to walk also moved out of their beds.  “However, the major cause of concern was that those who were left behind were from gynecology and labour rooms besides ortho patients”, a source said.
There are no SOPs to deal with fire, earthquakes and other calamities before, during and after the incidents at NEIGRIHMS, the source added.According to the source, NEIGRIHMS has no floor plan for evacuation and rescue and this is likely to affect the work of rescue teams. The source added that floor layout is important to enable the people to reach the exit or ramps as without floor plan, search, rescue and evacuation of people will be hampered.
For the last few years, the state fire department had not inspected the hospital, which should have been done annually as per Director General of Civil Defence (Fire) instruction. NEIGRIHMS was last inspected in 2012. Following this, no inspection was carried out to ensure the safety of the buildings, the source added.
When contacted to know the security audit of NEIGRIHMS, the Director, Dr . AG Ahangar did not return the call.