Three-member panel report on Oxygen turns out to be an EYEWASH?
The expert committee report, submitted after a delay of four months, indirectly gives CLEAN CHIT to the GMC and the politicians for the deaths of innocent Goans due to shortage of Oxygen
Says O2 shortage was due to delay in changeover time
Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: When the three-member Committee was appointed on May 12 to look into the shortage of Oxygen, which led to dark hour deaths in GMC, people expected justice for the 1700-plus innocent Goans, who died an untimely death due to “greed of the politicians”.
The Committee, headed by IIT Director Dr B K Mishra and former GMC Dean Dr V N Jindal as a member and Secretary (Revenue) and SEC member secretary Sanjay Kumar as convenor, was supposed to give the report within three days.
Political class scuttled the inquiry
The Committee was appointed when the rift between Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane was at its peak.
CM took over the monitoring of Oxygen supply and appointed a panel to probe shortage following several dark hour deaths, which upset Rane.
Rane himself went to national and international media to criticise the manner of deaths, which he claimed was due to a shortage of Oxygen.
Soon, the BJP top brass intervened to settle the dispute between CM and HM.
The BJPs “Mota Bhai” Amit Shah entered into the scene and gave an earful to both Sawant and Rane upon which the dispute was settled.
But after this, there was no mention of the three-member committee report, which was to be submitted in three days.
Thereafter, it was an open secret that the committee report would have nothing special or new as it kept on dragging.
HC intervenes; asks the panel to submit report
In June, the Bench of Bombay High Court at Goa directed the three-member Committee to look into the Oxygen crisis and submit its report within 4 weeks.
“From the material placed on record before us, we found that in May 2021, there were serious issues relating to the supply of Oxygen at the Goa Medical College. There was no clarity as to whether there was a deficiency in the oxygen reserves or whether there were logistical difficulties in the matter of actual supply of Oxygen to the patients,” the court observed, adding, therefore, the court said, we were constrained to make orders and issue directions in this regard.
Committee report on expected lines…
The Committee visited and inspected the oxygen assessment in the GMC before submitting their recommendations to the government but made no mention of the cause of deaths in the report.
Sources said the Committee was against installing new LMO generating plants and instead suggested setting up LMO tanks.
“The committee found that the hospital now has sufficient oxygen supply due to setting up of additional LMO tanks,” sources claim.
Shockingly, the Committee dedicated the deaths to shortage of Oxygen due to the changeover time of empty trolley when the next Oxygen-filled trolley arrived late.
Moreover, the Committee has recommended appointing a professional agency to manage uninterrupted oxygen supply to the hospital.
The GMC now has as many as 70 metric tonne oxygen tanks, including the 20 metric tonne tank installed at the newly built super-speciality block.
Committee’s mandate…
Following several COVID19 patients deaths in Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMC) owing to an oxygen supply, the State Government appointed a three-member Committee to
inquire into the oxygen supply issues at the state-run hospital.
The Committee was set up also after High Court slammed the government and the GMC over inadequate oxygen supply resulting in deaths of the patients, especially in the wee hours of the day.
The Committee had to ascertain the adequacy of the oxygen supply to GMC and the efficiency of the oxygen supply chain.
The Committee also had to examine the process of administration of Oxygen at GMC and give recommendations for its improvement,
“Committee was asked to recommend improvement in the complete chain of oxygen delivery at GMC,” the order said.
The Committee was directed to finish the task within three days and submit the report to the government.
