Yesterday evening, Jordanians bid farewell to the victims of the oxygen shortage incident at Salt Governmental Hospital, with protest demonstrations organized by angry activists in a number of areas of the capital, Amman, and some governorates of the Kingdom.

The incident revealed a poor medical reality in the face of the Corona pandemic, according to social media activists, in addition to the lack of medical personnel working in public sector hospitals, the decline in the number of specialist doctors, health supplies, and work pressure.

With the government and the competent agencies forming multiple committees to investigate the events of the accident, activists demanded that those responsible for the accident be held accountable, a change in the approach to forming governments based on personal, regional and geographic relationships, and an increase in interest in the medical sector.

According to activists on the communication sites, the incident contributed to the disclosure of the presence of companions alongside their patients in the patients' rooms, and a number of them provided spare oxygen cylinders to their patients, otherwise the accident would have occurred and were covered up with impunity.

The House of Representatives devotes a monitoring session today to discuss the events of Salt Hospital (Al-Jazeera)

Parliament session

What added to the scale of the disaster was what was revealed by the Minister of Interior in charge of managing the Ministry of Health, Mazen Al-Faraya, who said in the House of Representatives session today that the oxygen tanks issued alarms after the level in them decreased to less than 20%, and that the artificial respirators installed for patients in need were launched Also, warning sounds that oxygen is low to less than 5%, and despite that, medical personnel in the hospital did not pay attention to this situation.

In the oversight session for a discussion that the House of Representatives allocated today to discuss the events of Salt Hospital, the deputies concluded after lengthy discussions to demand the government to submit its resignation and be held accountable for what happened, and the deputies voted to form a verification committee to determine the causes of the accident by an overwhelming majority.

Former Representative Dima Tahboub commented on the parliament session via Twitter, saying, "From my experience: If the parliament session comes out with a decision to form an investigation committee only, know that the issue will be absorbed, settled and killed, as happened in the Karak events committee, raising prices, and the Dead Sea incident in the previous parliament." .

The incident rings the ears of officials that the medical sector is in dire need of more attention, care and equipment (Reuters)

Fittings retreat

In the context, the incident opened the door for medical personnel to talk about great pressure at work as a result of the Corona pandemic, and the increase in the number of patients for government hospitals, and this corresponds to a decrease in the number of doctors and medical personnel, including nurses and technicians, medical devices and supplies to treat patients.

A specialist doctor at the Salt Governmental Hospital, where the choking incident occurred yesterday, told Al-Jazeera Net that it is likely that the choking incident that occurred yesterday in any government hospital will recur, especially with the increase in the epidemic outbreak and the increase in the number of patients in government hospitals.

And he continued his speech - requesting anonymity - that "the specialist doctor treats in his private clinic between 20 and 30 sick cases, but in our government clinic we receive from 100 to 120 patients a day, this is in addition to the patients we supervise in the hospital, operations and emergency cases." And others. "

He concluded his speech by saying that the above does not justify the negligence of the patients' rights and the negligence that took place in monitoring the percentage of oxygen in the hospital tanks, but the incident should ring the ears of officials that the medical sector is in dire need of more attention, care and equipment.

As for the patients, they also have their own suffering with government hospitals, whether with the shortage of medicines and treatments necessary for chronic diseases, and the long waiting period for medical appointments for surgical or other interventions, and in the event of emergency admission, the patient waits for many hours to get a bed in the hospital.

Activists interact

Faced with this medical reality, many activists interacted and expressed their views on social media. Activist Hilda Ajilat commented on Twitter, saying, "We were going to become a regional center to face the challenges of Corona, we became a scandal in international newspapers, all of this as a result of choosing and appointing loved ones and loved ones."

As for Twitter activist Khaled Al-Juhani, he went further, saying, "The approach that holds the Teachers Union accountable for the donations it made to the country is the same approach that led to the deaths and deaths that happened in the Salt Governmental Hospital."

Activist Khaled Abu Al-Rub was not surprised in a tweet on Twitter, saying, "The constant attempts by statesmen and officials to portray the people as unqualified or ready for democratic life are attempts that they can understand" but not accept "out of their fear of the gains they get, but that the people try to persuade them. Themselves that they are gullible, idiots, they are incapable of democracy, for here is a disaster. "

Activist Afnan Al-Hiyari commented in a tweet to her on Twitter, saying, "The problem is simply not a problem of oxygen, the problem is a problem of a dilapidated medical sector, ... the solution is the systematic reform of all elements of this sector, the issue is much larger than oxygen cylinders."