THE deaths of 14 newborn babies at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, on Wednesday are not merely a heartbreaking tragedy; they must become a defining wake-up call for Pakistan’s entire healthcare system. The fire reportedly broke out in Mother and Child Health ward following an air-conditioning-related incident. Fourteen newborns subsequently lost their lives. Government has ordered an immediate investigation into cause of the fire, adequacy of fire-safety arrangements and effectiveness of the emergency response.
However, the investigation must go beyond determining what ignited the fire. It should examine a more fundamental question: Were the hospital’s fire, electrical, life-safety and engineering-maintenance systems properly designed, installed, tested, inspected and maintained to protect extremely vulnerable patients in an emergency?
A modern hospital—particularly a neonatal, intensive-care or maternity facility—cannot rely merely on portable fire extinguishers, firefighting vehicles or human intervention after a fire has developed. Hospitals require fully addressable fire alarm and detection systems capable of identifying the precise location of smoke or heat and immediately communicating an alarm to a continuously monitored fire command or control centre. Most importantly, high-risk hospital areas should be protected by properly designed and maintained automatic sprinkler systems, supported by appropriate hydrant and hose-reel systems. Automatic sprinklers can detect and suppress a developing fire at an early stage, potentially limiting its growth and preventing a small incident from becoming a catastrophic event.
Hospitals must also have emergency lighting, illuminated escape routes, fire-rated doors, appropriate fire compartment process and clearly defined evacuation procedures. These systems must be regularly inspected, tested and documented with deficiencies immediately corrected.
One particularly important preventive measure is infrared thermography. Annual infrared scanning of main distribution boards, switchgear and control panels can identify abnormal temperature rise, loose connections, overloaded circuits and deteriorating electrical components before they develop into equipment failures or fires. Such preventive practices form an important part of professional facilities and asset-management regimes.
The PIMS tragedy should therefore prompt an independent Fire & Life Safety and Engineering Audit of all major public and private hospitals across Pakistan, beginning with high-risk areas such as neonatal intensive-care units, operating theatres, intensive-care units, laboratories, medical-gas installations and oxygen-storage areas.
Hospital managements should also conduct regular emergency drills involving engineering, security, nursing, medical and administrative staff, with particular attention to safe evacuation or relocation of newborns, critically ill patients and others who cannot evacuate independently. The lesson from PIMS must be clear: fire safety is not a compliance formality; it is a life-saving engineering discipline.
Pakistan cannot afford to wait for another tragedy before taking preventive action. The lives of patients—especially newborn babies who cannot save themselves—depend upon properly designed, professionally maintained and continuously tested fire, life-safety and engineering systems. The objective must not simply be to fight fires after they start. It must be to detect them early, suppress them automatically, contain their spread and, above all, prevent the loss of life.
—The writer is contributing columnist.
