Six patients being treated for the coronavirus died after one of the largest hospitals in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar ran out of oxygen supplies, reported The Dawn on Monday.
Seven officials of Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital, including the hospital’s Medical Teaching Institution director, were suspended after an inquiry committee found they were negligent in performing their duties.
Khyber Teaching Hospital spokesperson Farhad Khan said the patients died on Saturday night when the vendor who supplies the hospital with medical oxygen failed to arrive on time. He said that five patients were admitted to the hospital’s coronavirus ward while one was in the intensive care unit.
The hospital receives its oxygen supply from Rawalpindi, which did not reach on time, leading to the death of the critically-ill patients, he added.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra directed the Board of Governors of the hospital to conduct an inquiry into the incident and take action within 48 hours. He promised that “all facts of the case will be made public”.
According to the preliminary report prepared by a three-member committee, the on-duty manager of services line said he received a call from the hospital’s operation theatre regarding low oxygen pressure on the day of the incident. On receiving the complaint, he called the oxygen plant’s manager, who did not answer the call. The manager said he then personally visited the plant, where he found that the two officials, who were supposed to be on duty, were absent. The oxygen plant pressure at that moment was zero, the report said, according to The Dawn. The report was submitted on Monday.
The inquiry report further noted that there was “no emergency rescue squad as required for disaster management under such conditions”.
The manager blamed the oxygen plant assistant for the incident, who “failed to perform his duty as he is responsible for the oxygen plant and has a liaison with the supplier”.
Six patients died due to the shortage in oxygen supply, the report said, while three more were initially missing. One is still missing while the other two patients were tracked down, according to the report.
The committee concluded that the incident took place due to a “system failure”. It also took note of the lack of training of staff, backup, supply and emergency squad at the hospital.
Health Minister Jhagra said that for now, only the staff members had been suspended on the basis of preliminary findings but further action will be taken in light of the detailed reports, which will be submitted by the end of this week.
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