United Hospital will be held to account for fire deaths: Minister Hasan

United Hospital will be held accountable for the five deaths caused by last week’s fire that broke out in the COVID-19 isolation unit of the hospital, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud has said.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 2 June 2020, 03:54 PM
Updated : 2 June 2020, 03:54 PM

Showing reluctance towards providing health services to patients and causing death due to negligence are punishable crimes, the minister was quoted as saying at a press conference in a media statement issued by his ministry on Tuesday.

“I don’t think United Hospital authorities can avoid responsibility for the death of five people,” he said.

He added it was ‘unacceptable’ that hospitals were declining to treat patients.

On Wednesday night, the fire that broke out in United Hospital killed five people, including three who tested positive for coronavirus and two others who tested negative.

The next day, the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence formed a four-member panel to investigate the incident. Debashish Vardhan, deputy director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence who headed the panel, said fire safety of the hospital was ‘in name only’ after visiting the scene the next day.

A writ petition was filed on Monday with the High Court seeking a judicial inquiry into the incident. A court on Tuesday ordered the investigation report to be submitted by Jun 17.

Minister Hasan went on to thank the doctors, nurses and other health service providers for risking their lives to give care.