Why not action against private hospitals without fire license

The High Court has issued a ruling seeking to know why legal action should not be taken against private hospitals and diagnostic centers that do not have a mandatory fire license.

Within the next four weeks, the Health and Family Welfare Secretary, Home Secretary, Director General (DG) of the Directorate of Health, Director General of Fire Service and the concerned have been asked to respond to this rule.

A bench consisting of Justice Ahmed Sohail and Justice Fatema Anwar of the High Court passed the order on Sunday (January 18) after the preliminary hearing of a writ. Along with this, the court ordered the disposal of the petitioner’s application within 90 days to ensure the safe healthcare of patients and the general public by taking necessary action against the private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers located in dangerous and unsuitable buildings across the country without fire license.

Advocate Md heard on behalf of the writ in the court. Kawsar Hossain. He told reporters that all hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers in Bangladesh have a legal obligation to have a fire license. But many establishments do not have this license, so they are at high risk of fire. A large number of patients, visitors, doctors and service workers stay there regularly for medical work, which exposes their lives to fire. Therefore, it is in public interest to take appropriate legal action against the establishments without fire license.

Earlier on August 28 last year, the petitioner applied to the concerned authorities of the government. It is requested to take necessary action against the private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers operating in dangerous and unfit buildings without fire license across the country to ensure safe healthcare for patients and general public. But even after that application, without getting any response, a writ was filed.

It is said in the writ, according to the data of the server managed by the Department of Health, a total of 18 thousand 113 private healthcare institutions are currently being operated across the country. According to the Fire Prevention and Extinguishing Act, it is mandatory to have a fire license to run these establishments. But according to the fire service data, only 7,565 establishments have fire licenses across the country. The rest are being operated without a license. A large part of which continues to operate in environmentally unsuitable and fire-prone buildings.

The writ also said that these institutions do not have emergency fire safety measures or are inadequate. There are also no proper entry and exit routes. Residential, commercial and healthcare activities are being conducted in the same building. Minimum safety standards as per Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) are not being maintained. As a result, these institutions are putting the lives of not only patients and their relatives, but also doctors and health workers at serious risk.

FH/AQF