Expired licence, unqualified doctors, nurse abuse: The many lapses at Delhi hospital where 7 newborns died in fire

A massive fire broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar on Saturday night and soon spread to two adjacent buildings.

At least seven newborns were killed and five were injured in the incident.

The hospital’s owner, Dr Naveen Khichi and an on-duty doctor were arrested.

Most of the parents learned of their child’s death and the incident on Sunday through the news or via friends or family, as neither the police nor the hospital notified them, as per Mint.

As the investigation continues, shocking details of negligence on the part of the owner have emerged.

Let’s take a look.

Expired licence

According to officials, the private neonatal hospital was allegedly operating illegally with an “expired” licence and no clearance from the fire department.

The licence issued to the Baby Care New Born Child Hospital by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Government of Delhi, had already expired on 31 March 2024.

“Even the expired licence issued to the said hospital allowed for five beds only,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary said, as per PTI.

However, at the time of the incident on Saturday at around 11.30 pm, 12 newborns were admitted to the hospital.

The police said during the course of the investigation it was also found that the ‘Baby Care New Born Child Hospital’ has three more such branches in branches in Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh and Haryana’s Faridabad and Gurugram.

No clearance from the fire department

The police said that there was no fire extinguisher installed in the hospital for any emergency in case of fire.

There was also no emergency exit.

According to officials of the Fire Department, the hospital also did not have a clearance from the department.

“The building has no fire NOC. We will also check documents related to the NOC on Monday,” an official of the DFS said, requesting anonymity, as per the news agency.

Oxygen cylinders kept in the two-storey building exploded due to which the adjacent buildings were damaged, he said.

Unauthorised oxygen refilling centre

A resident, Mukesh Bansal, claimed that an ‘unauthorised’ oxygen refilling cylinder work was being carried out in the hospital building.

“We had complained about it to the local councillor as well. But nothing was done. It was all happening under the nose of the police,” Bansal alleged.

Bansal also said that he used to live next to the hospital but due to the ‘illegal’ work of refilling cylinders, he shifted to the next lane.

Devansh Gupta, 21, told ThePrint, also claimed that through there was the NICU on the first floor, the hospital was known for the oxygen refilling centre on the ground floor.

Another resident, Iti Malik, 40, told ThePrint said that the NICU had been operating there for at least four years.

A third unnamed resident told the outlet that the building’s land may have been disputed, thus, enabling the NICU owner to rent out the building and run two businesses at once.

The police said they are also investigating the aforementioned claims.

Unqualified doctors

The senior official also said the duty roster of the said hospital included BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) doctors who were not qualified to care for children.

“During the investigations, we got to know that the doctors are not qualified/competent to treat the newborn children in need of neonatal intensive care, as they are BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) degree holders only,” said the DCP.

A member of Sewa Dal claimed the hospital staff ran away soon after the hospital building caught fire.

Nurse’s abusive behaviour

The Delhi hospital reportedly faced allegations of abuse to a newborn child in the past.

In 2021, hospital owner Dr Kichi moved the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of an FIR registered against him over the allegation that a hospital nurse had beaten a newborn infant, according to News18.

In the ‘mistreatment’ case, he contended that he had nothing to do with the allegations and that the CCTV footage only showed the nurse abusing the newborns.

He withdrew his plea later when the police chargesheet didn’t name him as an accused or as a witness.

The resident of Bhairon Enclave in Paschim Vihar was granted anticipatory bail by the high court in the case in December 2021.

The incident

Officials of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said the blaze broke out at the Baby Care New Born Hospital at around 11:30 pm on Saturday.

The owner Naveen Khichi is an MD in Pediatric Medicine and runs this hospital with his wife Dr Jagriti, who is a dentist, Choudhary said.

Another fire official said two boutiques, a portion of IndusInd Bank operating from an adjacent building and a shop on the ground floor were also damaged besides an ambulance and a scooty parked outside the building.

According to eyewitnesses, locals and members of an NGO, Shaheed Seva Dal, were the first to rush to help.

Ravi Gupta, a resident, said some locals climbed from the back side of the building and evacuated children one by one.

Sixteen fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the blaze, Divisional Fire Officer Rajendra Atwal said.

According to a report submitted by the District Magistrate (Shahdara) to the Delhi Divisional Commissioner, there were 12 babies admitted in the hospital at the time of the incident. While one died on the spot, 11 were shifted to a hospital in the vicinity where six were declared dead on arrival.

The deceased children included four boys and three girls. All were 15 days old except one boy aged 25 days. The bodies have been shifted to the GTB Hospital for postmortem, the police said.

A case has been registered at Vivek Vihar police station under IPC sections 336 (act endangering life and personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence), 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide).

The initial cause of the fire is stated to be a short circuit but a probe is on, DCP Choudhary said.

After the incident, District Magistrate (DM), Shahdara, Ritisha Gupta who reached the GTB Hospital faced the anger of distraught family members who shouted “hume insaaf chahiye (we need justice).”

Magisterial probe on

The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the fire tragedy.

In an order, Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar directed the district magistrate of Shahdara to inquire into the incident.

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lt Governor VK Saxena and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed grief over the tragedy.

PM Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF to the next of kin of each deceased and Rs 50,000 to the parents of the injured.

Delhi CM Kejriwal said those responsible for negligence will not be spared.

State health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj also said the strictest punishment will be given to those found negligent or involved in any wrongdoing.

With inputs from PTI