Ruia hospital fire destroys 1 lakh rotavirus vax doses

Tirupati: There appears to be no end to the series of incidents that raise several questions with regard to alleged apathy of Ruia hospital authorities and administration.

While there were incidents like death of 23 Covid patients when oxygen supply got disrupted, a patient dying due to highhanded behaviour of ambulance mafia, short circuit in maternity hospital, about one lakh doses of rotavirus vaccine were lost due to fire in the vaccine storage room which occurred during wee hours of Thursday. The walk-in cooler in which vaccine is stored got completely burnt. But the hospital authorities kept it under wraps. The vaccine doses were received on July 20.

State walk-in cooler officer Devanand and WHO's surveillance medical officer Md Abdul Zameer visited the place and directed the officials not to use the remaining vaccine doses from that room as they might have been damaged due to high temperature caused by the fire. A report will be submitted to the state officials, they said.

The fire it is said was first noticed by the adjoining paediatric hospital staff and based on their information, Hospital Superintendent Dr T Bharathi, DIO (Tirupati) Dr Santha Kumari rushed to the spot. This has now raised questions on the security of the vaccine storage room.

After every incident, a review meeting is held by officials and public representatives but still things have been going wrong, say patients and attendants who visit the hospital.