Report slams hospital for oxygen shortage; Goa Oppn protests in Assembly, demands CM Sawant's resignation

The opposition in Goa staged a walkout demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, after a government-appointed committee blamed the state's top government medical facility for mismanagement of oxygen during the second wave of the pandemic in which nearly 88 persons are reported to have died of oxygen shortage.

The three-member committee, headed by the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Goa Dr BK Mishra, has also blamed the hospital administration for facilitating a private company to monopolise oxygen supply in the coastal state.

"In June 2018, the decision of the public health department to extend the scope of work awarded to M/s Scoop to all across the state of Goa resulted in the creation of a single supplier for all the public health infrastructure. After this extension, health institutions had no alternative source of oxygen, in case of emergency," the government committee report said.

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"GMC did not timely raise any issue of lack of oxygen or sought augmentation of the oxygen, except putting their demand in affidavit before the High Court... GMC did not take much action on the letter written by the Goa Association of Resident Doctors dated May 1, 2021. A prompt action on this letter would have enabled better management of the situation," the report further said.

In May this year, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had initially sought a High Court probe into the series of deaths at the Goa Medical College reiterating that the fatalities among Covid patients were caused due to oxygen shortage.

"I request the High Court to check if there is mismanagement or shortage and bring out a white paper using experts... High Court should take over Covid management of GMC," Rane had said.

But months later, the Goa government in a written submission to the High Court said that deaths at the hospital were not caused due to oxygen shortage.

Earlier today, the Opposition quoting the contents of the committee report, demanded Chief Minister Sawant and Rane's resignation, while also staging a walkout during the first day of the two-day session of the state assembly which convened on Monday.

All India Congress Committee senior observer for the Goa polls and former Union Home Minister P Chidambaram also slammed the Goa government for the fatal oxygen shortage.

"Why does the Goa government have a Department of Health and a Minister of Health, if they are not responsible? After the report, the CM and the Minister of Health should resign," Chidambaram tweeted.

"The so-called expert committee report on Oxygen-shortage and related deaths in Goa is a desperate attempt to give a clean chit to the BJP government in Goa. The Hospital is blamed but the government is not to be blamed! Strange logic in respect of a government-OWNED hospital!" he added.

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