Electrical Safety in Hospitals

Background During the last years there has been a significant increase of accidents in hospitals especially in medical locations such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), or Operating Theatres (OTs), where evacuation of patients is extremely difficult. A detailed study reveals that most of these accidents are due to non-operation of protective device during overcurrent or faults. The study also reveals protective measures such as equipotential bonding is rarely made / maintained in medical locations. As a leading global destination for medical tourism, the medical sector must improve the safety of electrical installations and maintain it similar to western countries. The legal requirement of electrical safety in medical locations. Safety requirements in medical locations were first introduced in the National Electrical Code 1985 (SP 30, part 3, section 4). The code included safety requirements in medical installations including medically used locations from P1 to P7. The measures included were system earthing (TN-S & IT), disconnection time, touch voltage limits, necessity of continuity of supply, supplementary equipotential bonding, measures in oxygen rich areas etc. The NEC 2011 (SP-30) elaborated the requirement with pictures for easy understanding. The NEC 2023 (SP-30) further improved the subject and classified locations into Group 1 and Group 2 medical locations and made all requirements in line with IEC 60364-7-710. Implementation of safety measures. The implementation of electrical safety in medical establishments are a challenge in India. There is no agency to enforce or verify, whether the safety measures are implemented in the facility or not. This led to non-implementation of electrical safety measures, further knowledge depletion on the subject. Most hospitals in India are accredited under some accreditation system aiming to improve patient safety and care. How ever electrical safety is not included in the system. On the other side the accreditation system recommended to carryout “Thermal imaging as a new technology”. This resulted further depletion of the electrical safety measures. Currently the electrical safety measures carried out in most hospitals are limited to verifying the resistance of “earth electrodes” and carryout “thermal imaging in electrical panels”, both are not required or recognised in National Electrical Code of India 2023.