The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) will prepare guidelines for hospital safety and preparedness to deal with on-site emergencies. A core group will be constituted next week to work on the details of the norms.
This was decided after a brain-storming session with officers and experts at a meeting convened here on Friday in the wake of the recent fire accident at AMRI Hospital at Kolkata, which claimed more than 90 lives and raised many issues about hospital safety.
The guidelines will cover fire and all other hazards.
M. Shashidhar Reddy, Vice-Chairman, NDMA, said that in the past the Authority had issued guidelines for medical preparedness and mass causality management, but it largely dealt with preparedness of hospitals to deal with disasters outside the hospital. We now have to address the issue of emergencies inside the hospitals, he said.
The meeting was convened to review the status of hospital safety and understand the role and responsibilities of different agencies.
