Six patients including five COVID-19 positive patients have died on Friday at a private hospital in Punjab’s Amritsar, apparently on account of shortage of medical oxygen.
“Six people have died at Neelkanth hospital. We are probing the matter. A team for death analysis has been set up to find out what has happened. There is an apprehension that the supply of oxygen has been diverted. At Government Medical College also there was shortage of oxygen Friday night,” The Hindu quoted Gurpreet Singh Khaira, Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar as saying.
The committee for death analysis, will file its report by afternoon on Saturday.
Punjab Health minister Balbir Sidhu said, “We will investigate the incident and will take action accordingly.”
Family members of the victims told reporters that there was no oxygen flowing to the ventilators at hospital, leading to their deaths.
“We were told by a nodal official of the health department that the priority of supplying oxygen is to the government hospitals. After that the demand from the private hospitals would be met,” news agency IANS quoted a hospital doctor as saying.
He told the news agency that the doctors had repeatedly expressed concern over the delay in replenishing medical oxygen cylinders and also of running out of its supply with the district authorities.
