Kolkata:
Three days after a deadly fire engulfed it killing 91 people, the posh AMRI Hospital at Dhakuria in south Kolkata has temporarily withdrawn patient-related services at two of its wings that continued to function after the tragedy.
The suspension of services came after the hospital staff expressed concerns about job security as also local agitation.
The patients admitted in the said wings of the hospital have now been shifted to other branches of AMRI and some of them have been discharged.
The hospital is under the scanner for violating basic fire safety norms that combined with absence of timely action led to one of the worst tragedies that the city has ever seen. But it's not just the hospital alone - in the dock is the fire department also for shocking lapses on its part.
Debapriya Biswas, the Additional Director General, Fire Services, has revealed how his department could have issued a closure notice to AMRI in August-September this year.
AMRI had given an undertaking that it would use the basement as a car-park as per the sanctioned plan, and its fire safety clearance was conditional. The fire chief admitted that officials from his department should have inspected the building again in 90 days, and ordered the hospital shut. This did not, however, happen.
Blaming the owners for the monumental tragedy, Mr Biswas also revealed that the first information to the fire brigade came from the relatives of patients and not from the hospital. There were 160 patients inside AMRI when the fire began. More than half - and five staff members - didn't survive.
Fire department officials like Mr Biswas blame the hospital for turning into a death trap, alleging that the hospital did not have adequate fire-fighting facilities. AMRI staff has been denying this.
AMRI hospital was set up in 1996, and is co-owned by the Emami & Shrachi Groups.