On the night of 15 November 2024, at around 10:30 pm, a massive fire broke out in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (SNCU) of Rani Laxmibai Medical College located in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh. In this fire, 10 new born babies died on the spot. 16 children suffered severe burns. One of them died on November 18.
According to the information, at the time of this accident, 49 children were admitted in the ward. Only 39 of them could be taken out. Many of them were in a severely burnt condition. Investigation has revealed that safety norms were not being followed in this government hospital. The fire extinguisher cylinders here had expired (were old).
Due to the government’s disregard for safety norms in hospitals, such painful accidents occur again and again. Last month, one person died in a fire at ESI Hospital in Sealdah. In May this year, seven new born babies died in a fire at Baby Care Hospital in Delhi. In November 2021, four children died in a fire in the children’s department of Kamala Nehru Hospital in Bhopal. In January 2021, 10 new born babies died in a fire at Bhandara District Hospital in Maharashtra. In December 2011, a fire broke out at AMRI Hospital in Kolkata, due to which 89 people died. In August 2020, 8 patients died in a fire in the ICU of Shreya Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. After every such accident, the government has been making big promises to ensure the safety of patients. But the repeated occurrence of such accidents reflects the extremely inhuman character of the existing capitalist system and the state that runs it.
It is the duty of the state to provide proper and safe health care to all citizens. But under the existing capitalist system, the state is turning health care into a source of maximum profits for the capitalists. The services of government hospitals are being systematically ruined while health care is being increasingly privatized, and monopoly capitalists are being given full facilities to loot patients by setting up their own private hospitals. The accident that happened in the Jhansi hospital and many such accidents are the result of this. The top government officials, the health ministry etc., who are actually responsible for these accidents, have no accountability and they never have faced punishment for them.
This Indian state, which plays with the lives of people in this way to increase the profits of the capitalists, can never ensure the health and well-being of all citizens. We have to fight relentlessly against the increasing privatization of health care and demand punishment for all the officials responsible for such accidents. We must demand a comprehensive system of public universal health care in every corner of the country, so that all citizens can get safe and proper health care at affordable prices.