Hyderabad: Telangana has set a one-month deadline to complete fire, electrical and structural safety audits in all govt hospitals, following a review chaired by health minister Damodar Raja Narasimha at the secretariat on Thursday.The minister directed officials to ensure that audit findings are followed by time-bound corrective action, with life-threatening deficiencies rectified immediately. He also ordered that fire and electrical safety audits will be conducted every six months, while structural audits will be carried out annually.Officials have been asked to classify deficiencies as emergency, immediate or routine, based on their severity. Audits must also verify whether fire safety equipment is functional, rather than merely checking its presence, he said.The health department will prepare proposals for a govt order with comprehensive fire safety guidelines and a standard checklist covering alarms, extinguishers, hydrants, sprinklers, emergency exits, electrical systems, generators, air-conditioning and oxygen supply systems, along with evacuation and emergency response protocols.Hospitals will identify sensitive zones such as ICUs, operation theatres, NICUs, SNCUs, emergency departments, radiology units, dialysis areas and other critical care sections. These areas must have evacuation plans and regular mock drills.District-level committees headed by collectors will monitor fire, electrical and structural safety. Officials from the health, power, fire services and roads and buildings departments will be part of the committees, which will review audit findings, corrective measures and pending works.A state-level monitoring committee headed by the health minister will oversee the programme across districts. The government will also provide separate funds for regular maintenance of fire and electrical safety equipment and assign clear responsibility for its upkeep at each hospital.The minister further directed officials to strengthen monitoring of fire safety compliance in private hospitals, stressing that patient safety must remain the priority during inspections and corrective action.
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