ISLAMABAD – PIMS neonatal ward fire prompted strong action, with eight officials suspended and criminal proceedings ordered after an inquiry linked the deadly blaze to serious safety and administrative failures that claimed the lives of 14 newborns.
Islamabad’s largest hospital meant to save lives had no fire alarm in its neonatal ward. No automatic sprinklers. No dedicated fire-safety officer. And, according to the inquiry, not even proper emergency SOPs. Then a fire broke out and fourteen newborns lost their lives.
Now, eight officials have been suspended as the government moves against what the inquiry describes as a chain of alarming administrative and safety failures at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the action on Saturday after reviewing the preliminary findings of the inquiry committee, directing departmental and criminal proceedings against officials found responsible.
Among those suspended are PIMS Executive Director Professor Dr Imran Sikandar, Joint Executive Directors Dr Mutahir Shah and Dr Owais Ali Shah, Neonatal Department head Professor Dr Saadia Riaz, Senior Registrar Dr Naghma, Dr Nosheela Amjad, Assistant Director Security Muhammad Usman and CDA Emergency Services Director General Dr Abdul Rehman.
The government has also approved action against the private security company operating at PIMS and the officials concerned.
NIH CEO Dr Muhammad Salman has been appointed acting executive director, while orders have been issued to replace the suspended officials. The inquiry findings make for grim reading. The hospital had 13 SOPs, yet references to fire or emergency situations appeared in only two subsections.
Apparently, paperwork was easier to prepare than a proper fire-response plan.
When the blaze erupted, no supervisory staff member was reportedly present inside the neonatal ward.
Only two nurses, a female security guard and a house officer were there.
And the ward had no fire alarm.
No automatic sprinkler system either.
Investigators also found that the neonatal department did not meet relevant WHO requirements.
For a ward filled with vulnerable newborns, the list of missing safeguards is difficult to ignore.
One fire warning wasn’t enough?
The inquiry also found that a fire had already broken out at the PIMS nursing hostel in July.
Yet the subsequent response apparently failed to produce the kind of corrective action needed to prevent another disaster.
PIMS also had no official whose sole responsibility was fire emergencies. That job had instead been handed to an assistant director as an additional assignment.
Because apparently saving lives during a fire can simply be added to someone’s existing workload.
The locked-door controversy
Then comes the emergency exit controversy.
A CDA fire department assessment reportedly found that an emergency exit at PIMS was locked and kept closed. The report also alleged that security personnel obstructed firefighters during the initial response.
PIMS Executive Director Rana Imran Sikandar rejected the claim, saying access to the door had been restricted because of previous child-theft incidents but insisting that it was not locked.
One question now demands an answer: when every second matters during a hospital fire, how easily can an emergency exit actually be accessed?
The exact origin of the blaze has also come under scrutiny. Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal previously said the fire may have begun with a spark from an air-conditioning unit at around 6:38am on August 26. CCTV footage reportedly showed people evacuating the ward at approximately 6:39am.
Kamal said 14 infants were on oxygen when the fire erupted and that this contributed to the rapid spread of the flames. Staff reportedly used 26 fire extinguishers to fight the blaze. Yet the ward still had no automatic sprinkler system.
The emergency response has produced another bitter dispute. Khurram Mahmood, whose three-day-old daughter died, told AFP that rescue personnel took several hours to arrive and claimed victims were left waiting for assistance by the roadside.
Eyewitness Abdul Ghafoor similarly claimed the ward was filled with thick smoke and that rescue teams arrived almost two hours later. But Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry rejected the allegations.
His account was dramatically different: emergency responders, he said, reached PIMS within six minutes of receiving the alert.
So now there is another question for the investigation: six minutes — or nearly two hours?
The inquiry committee presented CCTV footage during the prime minister’s meeting, reportedly showing the tragedy unfold in around two minutes. The committee, headed by former interior secretary Shahid Khan, questioned hospital administrators, doctors, firefighters and rescue officials.
It also examined the problems encountered during the emergency. The interim report recommended strict action against employees who were absent from duty when the fire broke out.
All committee members signed the report, which was submitted to Prime Minister’s Adviser Tauqeer Shah before reaching Shehbaz Sharif.
The prime minister has ordered the findings to be made public and directed that the report be uploaded to the Ministry of National Health Services’ website.
