On the afternoon of April 19, the Beijing Municipal Government held a press conference on the fire accident at Changfeng Hospital, introducing the fire that occurred at noon on April 18, but was only known to the public and the families of the victims on the evening of April 18.
The scene of the press conference, mourning for the victims
According to the report, the fire accident has resulted in 29 deaths, the vast majority of whom were inpatients of Changfeng Hospital. The preliminary determination of the cause of the accident was that sparks generated during the internal renovation and construction of the hospital ignited, and 12 people, including the president, have been controlled by the public security organs on suspicion of major accident liability.
However, there are more core issues that the public and the families of the deceased are concerned about that were not answered at the press conference.
Inquiry into the fire accident one
The hospital caught fire, why did the patients’ families only find out from the news?
Fire is the most difficult accident to cover up. The fire is blazing, the smoke is billowing, and the calls for help are desperate, not to mention that it happened in a sensitive place like a hospital where people come and go. Any passerby taking photos and videos is enough to trigger public opinion.
Beijing Changfeng Hospital inpatient building after the fire
However, under the intervention of mysterious forces, a major fire that occurred in the urban area of Beijing, causing 29 deaths, could be hidden for as long as 8 hours. The fire broke out at around 12 o’clock, and until the official fire report was released at 8 o’clock in the evening, no photos or videos of the scene entered the public eye, which can be described as a spectacle in the history of world news.
What is even more incomprehensible and emotionally unacceptable is that the families of these inpatients of Changfeng Hospital actually found out about the fire by seeing the news pop-up window…
Think about it:
If your family member is hospitalized, and a lot of people die in a fire in the hospital, no one contacts you to inform you of the situation for as long as 8 hours after the fire is extinguished. You are anxious and rush to the hospital, but you can’t find your relatives everywhere, and no one tells you where the patients have been transferred, and you don’t know whether your relatives are alive or dead. What would you feel?
Certain units and certain people have completely lost the most basic empathy as human beings when they decided to suppress the news of the accident.
Inquiry into the fire accident two
The fire department rescued in time, why did so many people die in a common fire?
A fire that occurred at noon, a fire that occurred in a hospital, a place with extremely high fire safety requirements, and a fire that was promptly extinguished by the fire department, resulted in the tragic consequence of 29 deaths.
It is impossible for fire accidents to be zero, everyone understands this, there will be casualties when a fire occurs, everyone can also understand this, but such a serious casualty in a common fire must have special reasons behind it.
From the process, the fire rescue personnel arrived at the scene of the fire as soon as they received the report, dispatched 30 fire trucks, and extinguished the open fire in 36 minutes, which can be said to be very timely.
But from the results, a fire without explosions, without blockades, and with timely rescue, caused 29 deaths and 3 people in critical condition, which is obviously not in line with common sense.
Were the trapped people unable to escape themselves, or were the escape routes not smooth? Is there a problem with the rescue plan, or is there a problem with this building, which was converted from a hotel 20 years ago?
The victims need to be comforted, the families need justice, and each of us needs the truth about safety.
Inquiry into the fire accident three
Why would the hospital renovate while operating? Whose responsibility is the supervision?
At the press conference, Zhao Yang, deputy captain of the Beijing Fire Department, introduced the investigation of the cause of the fire. It was preliminarily determined that the sparks generated during the internal renovation and construction operations of the hospital ignited the volatile substances of the flammable coatings on site. The specific cause and loss of the accident are still under further investigation.
The fire department reported the cause of the fire accident
Behind the calm words is a crazy challenge to safety common sense.
Anyone understands that the inpatient department of a hospital is a place for patients to rest and recover, and it needs to be kept quiet the most. Why can the inpatient department of Changfeng Hospital operate normally while doing renovations? Haven’t the patients’ families complained? If there are complaints, why haven’t they been rectified?
Safety common sense that anyone understands, welding and other operations with sparks have a high risk of fire, the site must be cleaned up and the crowd evacuated before implementation.
In a crowded place like a hospital, who approved the construction and welding operations while operating? Is there any unit supervising?
Inquiry into the fire accident four
Since it is a responsibility accident, why didn’t they arrest the boss of Changfeng Hospital?
The Changfeng Hospital fire has been preliminarily classified as a responsibility accident, and the public security organs have criminally detained 12 people, including Wang Mouling, the president of Beijing Changfeng Hospital, Wang Moufeng, the person in charge of the construction company, and Cheng Moujun, the on-site construction personnel. It seems that the intensity is great, but looking closely at the list, all the people who are doing the work are arrested, and the people who really have the right to make decisions and ultimately benefit have not been seen.
The public security department reported the arrest of the persons responsible for the accident
Changfeng Hospital is a listed company and has many chain hospitals across the country. The president of each hospital is, in a nutshell, a senior worker. The Changfeng Hospital in Fengtai, Beijing, may have some say in choosing the construction unit, but whether to vacate an inpatient building during the renovation and construction time to ensure safety is obviously not something she can decide.
If the entire group company puts profits and efficiency above patient safety at the management level, then there is no real choice left for the president of a branch hospital. Renovation and construction must be carried out, and inpatient operations cannot be stopped. Who can guarantee safety?
If you really want to investigate the responsibility for the accident, you should ask Wang Wenjie, the actual controller of Changfeng Hospital, and the mysterious person behind Wang Wenjie who supports his nationwide expansion.
Inquiry into the fire accident five
Why did the Hunan patients go to a secondary hospital in Beijing for hospitalization?
There is a detail in the information of the victims reported at the press conference. In addition to the Beijingers, there are also patients from Hebei and Hunan. This is a situation that seems unreasonable but actually exists universally, including a hidden chain of interest transfer from public hospitals to private specialist hospitals.
Changfeng Hospital is a private secondary hospital. In Beijing, a city with the most tertiary hospitals in the country, it will never be the first choice for patients to seek medical treatment. And a patient from Hunan who traveled thousands of miles to Beijing for medical treatment is even less likely to choose to go to Changfeng Hospital for medical treatment.
Changfeng Hospital has branches in many provinces and cities across the country
However, in fact, Changfeng Hospital not only has hundreds of inpatients, but also most of them are patients with serious illnesses such as hemangioma. The news reports also saw patients who had foot amputation surgery due to diabetic foot being hospitalized in Changfeng Hospital.
Think about it: would you actively choose a private secondary hospital if your family member needs foot amputation surgery? Impossible. Unless it is when seeking medical treatment in a tertiary hospital, as directed or even designated by the doctor.
There can be many common reasons, such as the shortage of beds in tertiary hospitals, helping you to say hello to arrange hospitalization in a professional hospital immediately, and then the doctors from the tertiary hospital will consult; or the surgery in the tertiary hospital cannot be arranged, recommending you to go to a secondary hospital to do it, and then I will still be the chief surgeon for you; or your illness needs a certain imported medicine, our public hospital cannot prescribe it, recommending you to a certain private hospital can solve it…
Similar patient referrals, the reasons are true and false, the doctors are half coaxing and half scaring, and they have indeed fattened a group of private specialist hospitals like Changfeng Hospital.
This lid, I hope it can be lifted by this tragic fire accident.
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