13 May 2021  |   04:12am IST

Are patients being denied the breath of life?

It is rare, possibly the most rare of occurrences, for a minister to demand that the court appoint an inquiry in a matter that concerns his own department.
Are patients being denied the breath of life?

Possibly there will be many cases when ministers who are alleged of corruption put on a façade of bravado and state they have nothing to fear from an inquiry. But this is far different, as Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has sought the appointment of such an inquiry committee to investigate cause of deaths from 2am to 6am in the COVID wards of the Goa Medical College. He simultaneously admitted that there are deaths occurring due to interrupted oxygen supply, a statement that Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant quickly attempted to play down saying it is for doctors treating the patients to give the cause of the death.

Technically Sawant would be right, but in this case the entire world is alert to the fact that COVID-19 patients across India are dying because of lack of medical oxygen in hospitals in the country. Oxygen plants and concentrators have been sent to India as aid by other countries. There are pleas on social media from relatives of patients seeking beds with oxygen in hospitals in Goa. The Chief Minister has rushed to Goa Medical College at night after being alerted on social media that there are issues with the oxygen supply. The Goa Association of Resident Doctors has flagged this issue in letters to the Dean of the Goa Medical College and in a meeting with the Chief Minister. Why then is the Chief Minister attempting to hide behind a flimsy excuse that it is the prerogative of the doctor treating the patient to state how he or she died? Is no one in government going to take responsibility for the deaths of the Goans?

This month, every day on an average over 50 people have been dying in Goa due to COVID-19. This is not a minor matter that should be treated in such a cavalier fashion by the government. This is a matter of life and death involving a large number of people. Goa has been facing problems with the supply of medical oxygen, not just at Goa Medical College but at other government hospitals too. The Chief Minister and the Health Minister should be working together to rectify this. But there is all evidence that some political rivalry has crept up between the two. In the midst of the pandemic, political one-upmanship between cabinet members is just not tolerable. People are dying – 75 deaths were reported on May 11 – and the two main government figures involved in leading the fight against COVID are apparently not seeing eye-to-eye. If it is not the lack of oxygen or the interrupted oxygen that is leading to the deaths, then what is? Can Goans be given an answer?

This is not the first instance of Sawant and Rane not being on the same page where COVID treatment and prevention measures are concerned. Almost all through April, while the latter publicly made demands for a lockdown to bring down the number of cases, the former turned them down saying this was not necessary. Such was the allergy to the word lockdown that when he finally came live on social media to announce the measures, Sawant very consciously ensured that he did not say the word lockdown even once. Ironically, the last few second of the live streaming, when he thought the microphone and camera were off, he was heard telling his team that he had not uttered the word lockdown even once. Why this aversion for the word? The repugnance should be to COVID, then at least we may have a government working to keep Goans safe.


IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar