No oxygen, 6 die at Amritsar hospital

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, April 24

Six patients, four of them Covid positive, died at a private hospital here today allegedly due to shortage of medical oxygen.

While Punjab Medical Education and Research Minister Om Parkash Soni maintained the deaths occurred due to Neelkanth Hospital’s “negligence”, the private facility claimed it had alerted the district administration in advance about oxygen shortage.

“The hospital hadn’t reported any such problem till yesterday night,” claimed the minister, adding another private hospital’s oxygen supply demand was fulfilled.

However, Neelkanth Hospital managing director Sunil Devgan claimed they had flagged the problem to the nodal officer 48 hours prior to the incident. “We had even asked the attendants to shift their patients to other hospitals,” he said. Private hospitals have been complaining of shortage ever since the administration started rationing of medical oxygen.

CM Capt Amarinder Singh has asked the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner to initiate a probe into the incident.