IN 2015-I (GK) had shown my concerns on this issue
--https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/srinagar/recent-fire-at-skims-an-alarm/
RECENT FIRE AT SKIMS, AN ALARM
THE recent fire at SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura should serve as an eye-opener as to how prepared we are to tackle disasters. After reading the GK news report on SKIMS fire last m...
HOW PREPARED ARE OUR HOSPITALS WHEN SOG, CFR ARE STILL GREECE
THE recent fire at SK Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura should serve as an eye-opener as to how prepared we are to tackle disasters. After reading the GK news report on SKIMS fire last month, one could easily say that a very grave situation was tackled in a very timely manner and a real disaster was averted. This was possible because the organization maintained some emergency management plan. But then there are several international safety standards which need to be introduced at an earliest. The hospitals in Srinagar need to have a written policy to anticipate such incidents and follow Standard Operating Guidelines (SOGs) for response.
There are issues like use of Colour Codes. Many hospitals use Colour Codes like Code Red or Code Blue to manage and inform staff of potential emergencies/disaster information quickly and with a minimum of misunderstanding to staff, while preventing stress or panic among visitors and patients at the hospital.
Code Blue and Code Red are terms used to refer to Cardiopulmonary Arrest and Fire Alarm. Other expected emergencies too have codes for example child abductions has Code Pink, Code Grey is for Combative
Person with no weapon, Code Silver for Combative Person with a weapon(the nomenclature may vary from country to country or from setup). Some hospitals announce emergency codes over a Public Address System (PAS) while others just alert the necessary personnel via a pager bleep/system with the location specified.
But it is sadly true that till my last communication this model is not available in most of our hospitals in the summer Capital. They don’t have a modern alert notification system or even PAS.
Moreover basic emergency alert policy is need of the hour like for a medical emergency in which a team of medical personnel work to revive an individual in respiratory or cardiac arrest.
Here a Code Floor Room (CFR) works. When called overhead, the page takes form of “Code Blue, (Floor), (Room)” to alert the resuscitation team where to respond. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is accepted practice for sudden in-hospital and out of hospital cases which have now become the basis for modern day Basic Life Support (BLS) CPR.
Already world over(expect for Kashmir I guess) a rapid and Advanced Resuscitation Team (RRC/ARC) has been developed to precede CPR but how sad it is to know that we don’t have “Code Blue” model even in our premier institutions in Srinagar.
We have a large number of hospitals in the City but yet to comply with Minimum Safety Standard Requirements for the hospital. Such hospitals should be asked to follow the patient and staff safety norms. The failure to install and equip hospitals with the same shall be a misdemeanour!
(The ideas expressed are authors own)
