AGRA HOSPITAL SEALED, LOSES LICENCE AFTER 02 ‘MOCK DRILL’

AGRA: Uttar Pradesh government suspended the licence of a private hospital in Agra on Wednesday over allegations that authorities shut off oxygen for five minutes on April 26 to see which patients would survive, and left 22 people gasping for breath. The administration also shifted 55 patients from Shri Paras Hospital to other facilities and sealed the premises. Agra’s chief medical officer Dr R C Pandey confirmed the suspension of the hospital’s licence in view of “anomalies found there”. Additional chief medical officer (ACMO) Dr Virendra Bharti arrived at the hospital with deputy chief medical officer Dr R K Agnihotri to make sure no one was present in the hospital at the time of sealing.

“Orders for sealing the hospital were passed on Tuesday, but there were 55 patients in the hospital. No sealing could be done till they were shifted. Most of them were shifted to SN Medical College and Hospital (in Agra) and few of them went to private hospitals of their choice,” Pandey said.

“There are two different probes ordered into the case, one instituted by the Agra district magistrate and the other by the Agra CMO. Further action will follow once these reports are obtained,” ACMO Dr Bharti said.

The allegations are related to a video that surfaced on Monday where Paras Hospital owner, Arinjay Jain, is heard saying that he conducted a “mock drill” at 7am on April 26 during an acute oxygen shortage in the city and 22 people were “eliminated” after they “turned blue”.

Jain denied the allegations and said such an exercise was not done. The government also denied that there was an oxygen shortage on April 26 or 22 people died at the hospital. that day.

MOST OF THE PATIENTS WERE SHIFTED FROM PARAS TO S N MEDICAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL, OFFICIALS SAID