Grenada Today - The National Newspaper of Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique

Five Gas Bank Operators who are responsible for the Oxygen Supplies at the General Hospital in St. George's were interrogated by police for alleged acts of sabotage.

Informed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the employees were picked up last Thursday at their work place and brought to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Royal Grenada Police Force on Hillsborough Street in the heart of the city. According to the source the workers were interrogated for five hours about allegedly releasing the oxygen in tanks that were stored in the Bank at the Hospital.

Although they were released without charges, the source said the workers were informed by the lawmen that they are still under investigation. Director of Hospital Services, Stephen Thomas on Wednesday confirmed that the lawmen were called in to look into alleged acts of sabotage at the Hospital.

He told this newspaper the reason for the investigation is because they noticed a marked decrease in the amount of oxygen stored in the Bank between Wednesday and Thursday of last week. He disclosed that on leaving work last Wednesday, there were 8 tanks of oxygen in one bank, 4 in another as well as another 8 on stand by. According to the Director, there were only 4 patients on oxygen supply on Wednesday evening and that when management came to work the following day, there were no oxygen in any of the tanks.

Thomas said that no surgery was done between last Wednesday evening and Thursday morning that could have caused the supply to be depleted so the police were called in to determine what had happen to the oxygen. The senior hospital official was also asked about the status of the workers and he responded by saying that they are presently on the job. He spoke of the investigators closing their investigation for the time being since they were unable to unearth any alleged acts of sabotage that is conclusive.

Thomas insisted that there was no attempt to make the workers scapegoats because of a shortage with the supply of oxygen in the country. The health services have been plagued with that problem since last October but the situation became prevalent a few months ago after patients scheduled for surgery were turned away.

Government have said the reasons they run low on supply is because they do not own any oxygen tanks and that the property of their local supplier was damaged as a result of the passage of hurricane Ivan last September. Reports suggest that government owes the local supplier thousand of dollars and so they had cut back on their supply resulting in them sourcing oxygen from the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The situation with the oxygen was first made known by Medical Doctor David Lambert who is associated with the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).