Court hears testimony of former health minister in oxygen outage case

AMMAN — The Amman Magistrates Court on Thursday heard the testimony of former health minister Nathir Obeidat in the case of the oxygen outage at the New Salt Public Hospital that claimed the lives of several patients in March. 

Obeidat said that the Health Ministry staff at the headquarters are not directly responsible for providing hospitals’ oxygen needs as there are specific staff, under hospitals’ administrations, in charge of this issue, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Obeidat added that according to the custom, the health director in any governorate manages public affairs and does not intervene in the workings of hospitals in any fundamental way and as such is not involved in incidents similar to the oxygen outage case.

Due to the increased demand for oxygen amid the pandemic, a meeting including the directors of hospitals was held five days before the incident to discuss the issue, the former minister said. During the meeting, the Salt Hospital head said that there were no problems regarding oxygen in his hospital and called on his colleagues to visit the hospital and benefit from the expertise of his and his team, Obeidat told the court.