CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Wednesday dismissed one doctor and suspended three others for negligence after three patients on ventilator support died late Sunday night at Jalandhar’s Civil Hospital following a sudden disruption in oxygen supply due to a technical fault in the trauma centre ICU.
Punjab Health Minister Dr Balbir Singh said that although the hospital had four sources of oxygen, poor management led to the deaths. “The technical committee constituted to look into the incident has submitted its report. The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Raj Kumar, Senior Medical Officer (SMO) Dr Surjit Singh, and Consultant Anaesthetist Dr Sunakshi are being placed under suspension, and House Surgeon Dr Shivinder Singh is being dismissed from service,” he added.
Singh said the deaths were caused due to negligence by the Hospital Superintendent, SMO, and the doctor on duty. “A detailed inquiry will be conducted. The other three doctors are also likely to be dismissed from service and will lose all retirement benefits,” he said.
Expressing regret, Singh said he was sorry that the hospital could not save the lives of critically ill patients. “This unpardonable negligence cannot be tolerated, and exemplary punishment has to be given. There was negligence on their part, which reflected their callous attitude,” he said.
Three patients had died at the hospital due to a 25 to 30-minute glitch in oxygen supply.
The initial inquiry report by a team from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC) pointed to poor management by hospital authorities in overseeing the operations of the oxygen plant on the premises. It was found that instead of a trained technician, a contractual ward attendant, a non-technical employee, was on duty at the time of the malfunction, and he was ill-equipped to handle the emergency. This lapse led to the deaths of three critically ill patients in the trauma centre.
The families of the deceased alleged that their loved ones died because of the hospital’s failure to act swiftly after the central oxygen system failed. They claimed that the disruption in supply went unaddressed for too long.
Sources said the deceased included a snakebite victim, a young man admitted for a drug overdose, and a TB patient, all of whom were on ventilator support at the time of the incident.