Pakistan hospital fire: 8 officials suspended as probe reveals failures behind 14 newborn deaths

Dubai: Eight senior officials have been suspended and face criminal proceedings over a devastating fire that killed 14 newborn babies at one of Pakistan’s leading public hospitals, after an inquiry uncovered a catalogue of safety failures — including the absence of fire alarms and sprinklers in the neonatal ward.

The findings have deepened anger over Wednesday’s tragedy at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, where flames swept through a nursery housing 15 newborns.

Only one baby survived.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered the immediate suspension of eight officials after an interim inquiry report was presented to him, saying those responsible for criminal negligence would receive “no leniency”.

But the investigation raises an even more troubling question: Could the deaths have been prevented?

According to details reported by Geo News, a fire had broken out at the PIMS nursing hostel only a month earlier, in July, but serious measures to improve fire safety were not taken afterwards.

When fire broke out in the neonatal ward on Wednesday, it had no fire alarm and no sprinkler system.

Investigators also found that the hospital lacked detailed procedures and training for dealing with fires and other emergencies.

Of the hospital’s 13 standard operating procedures, only two subsections referred to fires or emergencies.

The speed at which the disaster unfolded left almost no room for escape.

According to the inquiry briefing cited by Geo News, the fire spread through and engulfed the ward within about two minutes.

Supervisory staff were not on duty when it began.

Two nurses, a female security guard and a house officer were in the ward at the time.

One nurse risked her life to rescue a newborn before flames overwhelmed the nursery. It was the only baby among the 15 in the ward to survive.

Sharif has approved a recommendation that the nurse receive the Sitara-i-Khidmat, a state award recognising public service.

Around two minutes of CCTV footage from the nursery was shown during Saturday’s high-level meeting reviewing the tragedy, although the video has not been publicly released.

The inquiry also exposed potentially critical delays in the response.

Emergency services were not called until six minutes after the fire started, while the first responders arrived 15 minutes after receiving the call, according to the interim findings.

The hospital did not even have a dedicated officer responsible for emergencies such as fires, Geo News reported. The responsibility had instead been given as an additional duty to an assistant director.

The inquiry also highlighted the hospital’s deteriorating condition and wider administrative failures.

Geo News reported that investigators found violations of relevant World Health Organisation rules concerning neonatal wards.

Those named by the inquiry include PIMS Executive Director Professor Dr Imran Sikandar; joint executive directors Dr Mutahir Shah and Chaudhry Dr Waris Ali Raza; neonatal department head Professor Dr Sadia Riaz; Senior Registrar Dr Naghma; Dr Nosheela Amjad; Assistant Director Security Muhammad Usman; and Capital Development Authority Emergency Services Director General Dr Abdul Rehman.

Sharif ordered both departmental and criminal proceedings against those found responsible and approved action against the private company providing security at the hospital and its officials.

Dr Muhammad Salman, chief executive of Pakistan’s National Institutes of Health, is to take over as acting executive director of PIMS, Geo News reported.

Sharif had earlier dismissed Health Secretary Aslam Ghauri, the Health Ministry’s most senior civil servant, following the blaze.

The government has announced compensation of 5 million Pakistani rupees (about $18,000) for each family that lost a child.

But questions have now emerged over whether responsibility was correctly fixed, particularly in the case of removed Health Secretary Aslam Ghori.

Sources close to Ghori told The News that he had visited PIMS three to four times in the week before the fire, submitted reports to the Prime Minister’s Office and rushed to the hospital immediately after learning of the blaze on August 27. They claimed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif may not have been given the full picture of those actions before ordering his removal.

Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office disputed that account, saying the office was unaware of any such reports and that neither the health secretary nor the health minister had informed Sharif about Ghori’s visits and actions when they spoke to him.

The deaths have triggered widespread grief and anger in Pakistan and demands from families and civil society groups for those responsible to be held accountable.

Sharif said exemplary punishment should be imposed so that no mother would again be separated from her child because of another person’s criminal negligence.

The repercussions are already spreading beyond Islamabad.

Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, has ordered an immediate review of fire-safety systems, firefighting equipment and emergency-response facilities at hospitals.

The tragedy is also among Pakistan’s deadliest recent incidents involving children. In June, 14 schoolchildren were killed when the roof of a tutoring centre under construction collapsed in Lahore.

For the families of the 14 newborns, however, the inquiry’s most painful findings may be the simplest ones: the nursery entrusted with keeping their babies alive had neither an alarm to warn of fire nor sprinklers to fight it.