The Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh said that they have taken cognizance of the video and an investigation has started against the hospital.
In a shocking incident from Uttar Pradesh, an inquiry has been initiated against a prominent private hospital in Agra over an audio recording of a mock drill that was conducted amid an acute shortage of oxygen during the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inquiry will be conducted against the owner of the hospital who was allegedly caught on audio bragging about how the hospital shut off oxygen supply on April 27 for five minutes in a 'mock drill' amid what the owner purportedly claimed was an acute shortage of oxygen at his hospital during a raging COVID-19 surge.
Twenty-two of the patients, both in the COVID and non-COVID wards, may not have made it out alive. The hospital had a COVID-19 facility within its premises.
"We were told that even the Chief Minister cannot get oxygen, so start discharging patients. Modi Nagar is dry. We started counseling families. Some were willing to listen but the others said they would not leave. I said ok let's do a mock drill. We will find out who will die and who will survive. So we did that at 7 am. A mock drill was done. No one knows. Then we identified 22 patients. We realised they would die. This was done for 5 minutes. They started turning blue," Arinjay Jain, the owner of Shri Paras Hospital, can be purportedly heard saying in the 1.5-minute audio clip from April 28.
The Agra District Magistrate Prabhu N Singh said that they have taken cognizance of the video and investigation has started, adding that action will be taken against those found guilty. However, he claimed there was no death due to lack of oxygen on that day the alleged video was recorded.
"Initially, there was some panic and shortage but we sorted all that out in 48 hours. In this hospital, there have been seven COVID-19 deaths on April 26 and 27. The hospital also has a lot of other ICU beds. There is no truth that 22 people died but we will carry out an inquiry," Singh said in a statement.
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