Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said that a report submitted by the Delhi government to the High Court in May, which said that 21 deaths in Jaipur Golden Hospital was not due to oxygen shortage, was a “preliminary report”.
“In that particular case, they [committee members] had to submit the report in one day. It can be called a preliminary report,” Mr. Jain said during a media briefing.
“We had formed a committee to look into all such cases, but the Central government through the L-G ended that committee,” he added.
The four-member committee, which prepared the report, was formed by the Delhi government on the directions of the High Court and nowhere in the report it was mentioned that it is a preliminary report. “Report of the Committee on Death in Hospital due to insufficiency of oxygen supply” is the name given in the document submitted to the High Court.
On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said the Delhi government does not have any data on oxygen shortage-related deaths as the Central government did not allow them to form another committee to look into all claims of deaths due to lack of oxygen and give compensation to the families.
Mr. Sisodia made the comment in response to the Centre’s statement in Parliament that “no deaths due to lack of oxygen have been specifically reported by States/UTs” during the second wave
Hospital’s contention
But Jaipur Golden Hospital had said that the deaths were linked to oxygen shortage. “Twenty critically-ill COVID patients died last night over oxygen crisis. The oxygen stock was never completely dry, but the pressure was low as we were running out of stock,” Dr. D.K. Baluja, Medical Director of Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi had said on April 24, adding that the deaths were “linked” to the oxygen shortage.
The report submitted to the High Court also said that Jaipur Golden Hospital has “claimed” that the reported deaths were “due to the deficiency of oxygen”.
Panel report
“In view of the above observations, the committee was of the opinion that all 21 recorded patients were sick or critical and suffering from COVID-19 infection. As per the case records made available to the committee, all the reported patients were getting oxygen therapy or ventilation throughout the hospital stay including the time of resuscitation and there was no mention of any oxygen shortage in any of the case records. In view of the natural virulent course of the disease and lack of any evidence suggestive of oxygen shortage in the case records, the committee was of the opinion that shortage of oxygen as the cause of death could not be ascertained,” the report by the committee read.