3 deaths at Jalandhar hospital: Technician was off, ward servant was handling oxygen plant

Instead of a trained technician, a ward servant was operating the oxygen plant when the supply was disrupted on Sunday evening at Civil Hospital in Jalandhar, leading to the deaths of three critically ill patients.

The hospital had only two technicians assigned to the plant. One was on leave and the other had gone off duty that evening. The authorities' contingency plan involved assigning the duty to two Class IV employees. When the 1,000 LPM plant malfunctioned, one of these employees, tasked with manually switching to the 700 LPM backup, lacked the necessary training. There was clearly a delay in communication by the staff, manual switching over and no proper back-up plan, which led to the delay and death of the patients.

Hospital staff revealed that there were originally four technicians appointed at the DC rate. One technician left due to low wages a year ago, and another resigned six months ago. With only two technicians remaining, the authorities decided to assign the responsibility to two Class IV employees to pitch in. On the evening of the incident, one of these non-technical employees was on the job. Hospital authorities, speaking anonymously, confirmed the gaps in the system.