6 Covid-19 patients die due to oxygen shortage in Pakistan's Peshawar

Pakistan currently has seen a total of more than 400,000 coronavirus infections and over 8,000 deaths

Six coronavirus patients died tragically at a government hospital in this northern Pakistani city after oxygen supplies ran too low, forcing authorities to suspend seven officials for their negligence, according to media reports on Monday.

The problems at Khyber Teaching Hospital began after the daily supply of fresh oxygen cylinders did not arrive on Saturday evening. The 300 backup cylinders were then unable to supply the required pressure for the ventilators.

Seven officials of Peshawar's Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), including the hospital's Medical Teaching Institution (MTI) director, were suspended after an inquiry committee found they were negligent in performing their duties which caused the deaths of at least six patients due to shortage in oxygen supply, the Dawn newspaper reported.

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Five patients in the isolation ward and one in the intensive care unit (ICU) died early Sunday when the hospital’s oxygen supply was disrupted. When the incident occurred, there were at least 90 patients in the isolation ward.

Mureed Ali, whose mother is ill with Covid-19, told BBC Urdu that "throughout the hospital, we were running to save our patients, begging the medical staff".

He explained that some patients were eventually moved to the emergency room, where there was still a good oxygen supply.

But after those supplies ran low as well, several patients died, while many others deteriorated into critical condition.

The inquiry report's findings said the incident took place due to a “system failure”. It identified that a chronic lack of refilling oxygen tanks went “unnoticed, unsupervised and unchecked”.

“There is no back of oxygen storage/supply system in the hospital as recommended by the Health Technical Memorandum,” it said.

The report also found that the supply chain department failed to provide the required number of flow metres for cylinders and highlighted that the hospital has no emergency rescue squad either, Geo News reported.

It added that the management had failed to report an absentee staff of the oxygen plant. The plant staff also lacked training and skills while the biomedical engineer also failed to perform his duties.

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An inquiry found staff meant to be on duty at the hospitals' oxygen plant were not present at the time, and that the oxygen tank on site would routinely only be partially filled.

Health minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Taimur Khan Jhagra said the probe committee had detected "structural flaws" which led to the incident. He said that the primary cause of the deaths was that the shortage in oxygen supply was detected late.

Jhagra said that hospitals across Pakistan should learn lessons from the systemic failures in the hospital in Peshawar.

Pakistan is currently fighting a new wave of coronavirus cases, with a total of more than 400,000 infections and over 8,000 deaths reported since the start of the outbreak.

On Monday, Pakistan recorded 3,795 coronavirus cases during the last 24 hours, marking the fifth straight day of more than 3,000 infections. It was also the highest daily total since July 2 when the country reported 4,087 cases.