Punjab health minister Dr Balbir Singh on Wednesday suspended the medical superintendent, senior medical officer and consultant anaesthesiologist of the Jalandhar civil hospital, where three patients died in the ICU after disruption in the oxygen supply on July 27, besides terminating the services of a newly appointed house surgeon.
Acting on the report of a probe team that established gross negligence, the health minister said medical superintendent Dr Raj Kumar, senior medical officer Dr Surjit Singh and consultant anaesthesiologist Dr Sonakshi had been placed under suspension, while the services of Dr Shaminder Singh, the house surgeon, have been terminated with immediate effect.
In its initial report, the high-level technical probe team reported poor management on the part of the hospital authorities in overseeing the operations of the oxygen plant on the premises.
The team found that instead of a technician overseeing the plant, a contractual ward attendant — a non-technical employee — was on duty when a malfunction in the plant caused the disruption of supply. He was ill-equipped to deal with the exigency, leading to the death of the three critically ill patients in the trauma centre.
The investigation was conducted by a team of doctors and officials from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation (PHSC).