As the entire country is facing a battle against severe shortage of oxygen supply, four critical Covid-19 patients died due to scarcity in oxygen supply at a private hospital in Rewari district of Haryana on Sunday.
The critical Covid-19 patients died following a dip in oxygen pressure at Rewari’s Virat Hospital. The hospital administration has accused the State Government of stopping the truck of oxygen supply which was on its way from Bawal city to the hospital on Sunday afternoon.
The incident came a day after when the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar made tall claims of having adequate oxygen supply in the state to treat critical Covid patients.
After the death of four patients, the relatives of other patients, who were admitted at the hospital held a protest outside the building complex alleging there is a grave shortage of medical oxygen. Later, a team of Sub Divisional Magistrate, Rewari, Chief Medical Officer, Rewari and other health officials reached the hospital to investigate the matter.
Home-cum-Health Minister Anil Vij has constituted an inquiry committee headed by the concerned Additional Deputy Commissioner into the incident and asked him to submit a report by Monday.
“Four patients including one each from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and two from Rewari district died due to shortage of oxygen supply at the hospital on Sunday,” said Dr Viratveer Yadav, Managing Director, Virat Hospital, Rewari while talking to The Pioneer.
Accusing the local authorities of stopping the truck of oxygen supply, Dr Viratveer said that the truck was stopped just 20 minutes away from the hospital by local police with malafide intention. I had requested the concerned CMO and other officials to help us but no one responded in time. This led to the death of four critical Covid patients at the hospital, he said.
The hospital, which is functioning as a dedicated Covid facility, is facing shortage of oxygen supply from the last eight days but we were somehow managing to procure the oxygen cylinders through private agencies.
The hospital currently has 90 critical Covid patients but there is no help from the government in ensuring oxygen supply here, he said.
Expressing inability to run hospital operations in view of scarcity of resources and huge workload burden, the Managing Director has now also requested the State Government to take over the hospital.
Home-cum-Health Minister Anil Vij told The Pioneer that a three-member committee headed by concerned ADC will inquire into the lapses that led to the death of four patients at the private hospital. I have asked them to submit a report by Monday, he said.
We will investigate the allegations of hospital administration. It is an unfortunate incident and strict action will be taken against found guilty, Vij said.
When asked about the request of hospital administration to the State Government to take over the premises for treatment of COVID patients, the Minister said that the concerned Deputy Commissioner has talked to the hospital and the issue has been resolved.
Following the incident, the Chief Secretary Vijai Vardhan on Sunday directed all deputy commissioners to constitute a committee headed by high level officers in order to ensure the proper allocation of oxygen in each district.
Union Minister and Gurugram MP Rao Inderjit Singh while expressing condolences on the deaths, has also asked the state’s Health Secretary to submit an inquiry report into the issue.
Notably, Haryana has seen a sudden surge in COVID cases and daily fatalities in the past two weeks. The demand for medical oxygen and ICU beds has also increased across the state due to sudden surge in infections.
The state on Sunday reported the highest ever 64 deaths due to COVID and 10985 fresh infections.