CAIRO: Jordan’s health minister Nathir Obeidat has tendered his resignation in the aftermath of an oxygen outage at a hospital that left six patients dead.
Obeidat said he was taking responsibility for the incident at Al-Salt Hospital where six patents have died due to an oxygen outage, state news agency Petra reported.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II and crown prince Hussein bin Abdullah have arrived to visit the hospital on Saturday afternoon.
Six patients died Saturday due to an hour-long interruption of oxygen supply to the intensive care ward in the Salt Public Hospital
Obeidat visited the hospital west of the capital Amman and met staff as security forces cordoned off the area to prevent trouble among patients’ relatives.
Obeidat said the outage was a result of oxygen tanks running out, adding that the hospital switched to alternatives following the disruption but the deaths have already occurred. Oxygen supply was back to normal, he said.
Jordan’s public prosecutor has launched an investigation into the incident upon orders from Prime minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh, Petra reported.
Local reports claimed shortage of medical oxygen resulted from a technical failure. No official sources confirmed the reason behind the oxygen failure yet.
The oxygen cut affected patients in intensive care, maternity units and coronavirus wards, according to Reuters.
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