By Special Correspondent
Peshawar: Six patients of Covid-19 including a two years old baby boy breathed last before his parents allegedly due to shortage of oxygen at Peshawar’s Khyber Teaching Hospital in the wee hours of Satuday. Incident has been regarded as one of the biggest incident of negligence at any hospital of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw province.
Taimur Saleem Jhagra, provincial Health Minister of KP province confirmed the incident and said he has directed the Board of Governors (BoG) of the KTH to conduct an inquiry into the incident and take action within 48 hours.
As per detail, six coronavirus patients at the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Peshawar died allegedly due to a lack of timely supply of oxygen, the hospital’s spokesperson Farhad Khan confirmed on Sunday.
According to Farhad Khan, five patients were under treatment at hospital’s coronavirus ward while one was in the intensive care unit (ICU). Usually, hospital receives its oxygen supply from Rawalpindi which did not reach on time this time, leading to the death of the critically ill patients, he added.
One Peshawar resident said that his two-year-old son Sarim — who was admitted to KTH — had also passed away due to a lack of oxygen supply, however, the casualty was not officially confirmed.
“My son was [admitted in the ICU] for last three days and died around 2:30am when oxygen supply was disrupted,” Sarim’s father Samiullah said.
The spokesperson said that more oxygen was required during the winter season. The hospital had the capacity to keep 10,000 liters of oxygen which was maintained on a daily basis and it also had backup cylinders.
He further said that the situation was “under control” and details were being acquired about the reasons behind the delay in supply.
Jhagra warned that if the inquiry conducted by the hospital’s BoG was found to be unsatisfactory, the provincial government would “immediately order its own independent inquiry”.
In a tweet, the minister said that all facts of the case would be made public and requested people to refrain from sharing unverified information on social media.
“Neither this nor any other incident will be left unused, to improve the health system, its service, and its system of accountability and transparency,” Jhagra said.
In the wake of increasing number of Corona patients dyeing in the hospitals of KP due to lack of Oxygen, healthcare providers have urged the government to provide oxygen cylinders and other necessary items to hospitals in KP to save the lives of corona patients.
Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) president Dr Ameer Taj Khan told journalists that on the one hand, SOPs were being violated even in hospitals while on the other, even the oxygen cylinders were not available in the district hospitals.
“PTI has been ruling the province for the last seven years, during which the population has been increased but the hospital infrastructure witnessed little improvement. He said the corona epidemic aggravated the situation and proved to be an extra burden on hospitals. He claimed that the district hospitals of KP lacked facilities to treat COVID-19 patients.