Maharashtra: Maharashtra currently has data from 484 rural hospitals, primary health centres, district and sub-district hospitals out of 34 in 36 districts. There was a fire audit but only 45 got NOC. At least once a mock fire drill has been conducted on 218. Talking about this recently, director, National Health Mission, N. Ramaswamy said, "There are many hospitals which are decades old and were handed over by PWD without obtaining NOC for fire safety. Soon, we will give a circular to all the districts to ensure that a hospital starts functioning only after necessary permission is given.

Further, he also said that with PWD, we will also clearly write who is responsible for fire audit, NOC and other permissions. Out of 26 government hospitals assessed in Pune, only four have conducted fire safety audits, and nobody has NOC. One NOC from the fire department in 13 hospitals in Thane, 7 have conducted fire audits and 2 have NOC. In addition, some districts have shown very poor protocols in view of fire security for all their government hospitals.

Nandurbar, Dhule, Satara, Jalgaon and Sindhudurg have neither conducted a single fire audit and nor have NOC from the fire department for any hospital so far. Dr Nitin Borke, District Health Officer (WHO) at Nandurbar said, "After the incident of fire at Bhandara, I issued a letter to all PHCs for conducting fire audits.''

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