Government agencies concerned are not yet doing anything to ascertain the safety status of private hospital buildings.
The Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) under the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), which is responsible for ensuring the safety of public and private buildings and for implementing the building codes, said that it is the responsibility of the respective designers to submit the safety status reports of buildings that they designed and in which private hospitals have been operating."We have not monitored the safety status of the private hospitals. It is the responsibility of the engineers concerned to submit the safety reports," said Machha Kaji Maharjan, an engineer at DUDBC. He informed that over 80 percent of private hospitals were operating in buildings meant for residential purposes.
According to Maharjan, DUDBC had submitted a report to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) warning it not to grant permission to run hospitals in residential buildings. But MoHP did not pay any heed to DUDBC's suggestion and issued the licenses to run hospitals in residential buildings. "We do not know what the safety status of those hospitals is, " he said adding that operating hospitals in residential building is illegal.
Several government as well as private hospitals have collapsed in the earthquake.
Maharjan informed that DUDBC has monitored the safety status of 83 buildings at 18 government hospitals. Out of the 83 buildings, five were found seriously damaged, and DUDBC placed a red sticker on them.
DUDBC has placed yellow stickers on 12 among the remaining buildings. Buildings marked with yellow stickers can be used again after through maintenance but a red sticker means that a building has to be demolished. DUDBC said that one building each at Bir Hospital, Patan Hospital, the maternity hospital, Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Diseases Hospital and Bhaktapur Hospital have been seriously damaged and red stickers have been placed on them.
Meanwhile, MoHP said that it has asked all private hospitals to send their building inspection reports to the ministry.
"We have been monitoring wounded patients, not the buildings," said Dr Guna Raj Lohani, spokesperson at MoHP, adding, "We have asked the hospital administration to send a building inspection report." He informed that hospitals have been sending their inspection reports to the ministry and some of the buildings have been found problematic. "Patients will not go to hospitals where the buildings have developed cracks."We will also monitor these," he added.
Dr Lohani said that the ministry will check to see whether the hospital buildings are secure or not but not whether the buildings were meant for residential purposes or use as hospitals.
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