If nobody died of oxygen shortage in Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital, its MD must be booked for lying

In what could land the authorities of Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital in trouble, the Delhi Police on 3rd August claimed that no deaths occurred in the hospital during the second wave of Covid-19 due to a shortage of oxygen. This is in contradiction to what the hospital’s MD had claimed earlier.

In April, the Jaipur Golden Hospital had blamed the Delhi government for the shortage of supply in oxygen for Covid-19 patients.

The hospital claimed that on the night of April 23-24, 21 patients died at the hospital allegedly due to lack of oxygen. According to ANI, the hospital told Delhi High Court earlier that “there is not just shortage but uncertainty”. Hospital’s counsel claimed that the management is not even able to contact “our supplier of oxygen” and also that the Delhi government had created a mess. Not long ago, the MD of the hospital, Dr. DK Baluja, was also seen crying on live national television as he claimed 25 patients died due to low oxygen supply in his hospital.

https://twitter.com/MrSinha_/status/1422761387168722947?s=20

In July, the court had asked the police to file a report after family members of six deceased patients moved a plea against the hospital’s management. When the incident occurred, the hospital’s MD had said that the shortage of oxygen had put 200 more lives at stake. But according to reports, there was no conclusive evidence to blame the deaths on oxygen shortage. “On scrutiny of death summaries of all deceased persons, it was revealed that no death of any patient caused due to shortage of oxygen,” the police stated in the status report regarding the FIR against the hospital for deaths.

An expert committee constituted by the Delhi government to ascertain the cause of deaths opined that they were due to natural reasons and could not be attributed to a shortage of oxygen. It stated on that fateful night when the deaths took place the average mortality of Covid-19 patients in 24 hours was two and then suddenly shifted to 21 deaths within a span of 7-8 hours and these patients were on ventilators.

The petitioners have accused the hospital authorities of many offences which included murder, criminal intimidation, and death by negligence and criminal conspiracy. DCP Pranav Tayal informed the metropolitan magistrate Vivek Beniwal that since it is an opinion regarding medical negligence, the allegations are made against the doctors and medical staff.

The Delhi Police’s statement and the expert committee’s opinion is in contrast to the claims made by the hospital’s MD earlier and it remains to be seen if he was telling the truth. Now, if no deaths occurred due to oxygen shortage in the hospital, action needs to be taken against the MD for allegedly creating a fake narrative.