Shortage of oxygen at Mansehra hospital echoes in KP Assembly

PESHAWAR: After the recent incident involving the deaths of seven patients due to the shortage of oxygen at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in the provincial capital, the non-availability of oxygen at the King Abdullah Hospital in Mansehra was raised in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday.

On a point of order, Naeema Kishwar of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said patients were shifted to hospitals in Abbottabad due to non-availability of oxygen at the King Abdullah Teaching Hospital in Mansehra.

She said it was a serious issue that hospitals were facing shortage of oxygen at a time when coronavirus cases were on the rise. She said action should be taken against the ones responsible for the shortage of oxygen.

The female lawmaker argued that hospitals in Abbottabad were already overcrowded and the shifting of patients from Mansehra would further burden the health facilities.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary leader Sardar Muhammad Yousaf seconded the point and said oxygen was not available in health facilities in Mansehra district. He said the hospital had funds but needed approval to arrange the required facilities. Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha of the PML-N also criticised the government for its failure to provide health facilities to the public, saying if hospitals were short of oxygen then where the patients would go. He recalled that nine patients lost their eyesight due to negligence of doctors at a hospital in Abbottabad.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Babar Salim Swati also admitted the shortage of oxygen in Mansehra, but said that Health Minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra had visited the district and the provision of oxygen was under process.

He said the King Abdullah Hospital was established with the assistance of Saudi Arabia after the 2005 earthquake and under an agreement the Saudi government had taken the responsibility of providing equipment to the hospital for which a fund of Rs720 million has been sanctioned and a Turkish firm has been awarded the contract of providing the equipment to the hospital.

The issue of electricity and gas loadshedding was also raised in the House as the joint adjournment motion of the opposition members was accepted for discussion. To a question, the House was told that the Swat Expressway was almost complete as about 180 meter area was remaining that would soon be completed.

Minister for Communications and Works Riaz Khan sad that the second phase of the expressway had been approved and work would soon be launched on it. He added that feasibility for Chakdarra-Dir Expressway was being prepared. He said that the faults in Swat Expressway would also be removed. He argued minor deficiencies in such a big project were not a matter of concern. It was the first motorway constructed by a provincial government, he added.

Speaking on his adjournment motion, Awami National Party (ANP) parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said the federal education minister’s announcement of uniform syllabus was against provincial autonomy. He said the provincial government has surrendered its authority.

Law Minister Sultan Muhammad Khan said the federal government did not interfere in the affairs of the province and all decisions were being discussed in the cabinet. The House unanimously adopted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities (2nd amendment) Bill, 2020; and the KP Rehabilitation of Minorities Victims of Terrorism Endowment Fund, Bill 2020 before the setting was adjourned for an indefinite period.