Excessive emphasis on cost-cutting measures is leading to compromises on safety aspects in refrigeration at various hospitals leading to frequent fire mishaps and spread of various infections, says B. Gautham Baliga, expert on refrigeration in healthcare and pharma sector.
Mr. Baliga, who was here to address a meeting of Indian Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (ISHRAE), told The Hindu on Saturday that the healthcare sector in India was ill-equipped and there were no statistics available on the state of affairs in corporate, small and mid-size hospitals.
Pointing out that every hospital needed to follow best practices by installing green technologies for power efficiency and better results, he bemoaned that most of the managements were compromising due to either lack of awareness or to avoid huge expenditure for short-term profits.
Mr. Baliga, who is the director of Mumbai-based OPAL HVAC Engineers Pvt. Ltd, said the situation was comparatively better in pharma sector as most of the units have to spend huge expenditure on refrigeration and air-conditioning to adhere to stringent regulations on export consignments to the United States and the European Union.
“The situation to be very frank is pathetic. Knowingly or unknowingly many do suffer due to hospital-borne viruses and infections for want of proper refrigeration and air-conditioning in the ICU, rooms and operation theatres,” he stated He also referred to death of over 20 patients due to fire at a corporate hospital in Bhubaneswar said the incident might have happened due to compromises made on refrigeration and air-conditioning.
“Enforcement of rules meant for proper refrigeration is not being implemented effectively,” he said and advocated a sustained campaign to increase the use of green-friendly advanced technologies. He disclosed that ISHRAE was in talks with National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare providers (NABH) for collaboration to spread awareness through new courses and sensitisation programmes.
