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Three days after a fire accident claimed the lives of five infants, the Telangana government on Thursday, September 24, released Rs 11.1 crore for urgent repairs and renovation work at Adilabad’s Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).
Of the sanctioned funds, Rs 1 crore will be used to renovate the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU), while another Rs 1 crore has been set aside for repainting the hospital. Rs 1.6 crore will go towards repairs to the CC pavement and the damaged compound wall on the RIMS campus.
A separate Rs 5 crore allocation has been made for repairs and upkeep of toilets and bathrooms. The government has also approved Rs 1.5 crore for immediate repairs to the oxygen pipeline network and Rs 1 crore for electrical works.
Telangana health minister Damodara Raja Narasimha also instructed officials to complete fire, electrical and structural safety audits of all government hospitals within a month, with inspections being carried out every six months.
A total of five infants died in the tragic fire that erupted at RIMS in Adilabad on September 21. Two babies were killed in the fire that broke out at the SNCU ward of RIMS. Both were preterm babies on ventilator care.
A two-day-old girl who was born prematurely at 28 weeks and weighed 1.1 kg was in critical condition and died while being shifted to a nearby hospital on the same night.
Two other infants, premature babies born between 26 and 28 weeks of pregnancy, passed away on Tuesday.