Jalandhar, Aug. 7 -- Days after three deaths in Jalandhar civil hospital's ICU due to oxygen supply disruption, the health department is set to hire service providers for maintenance and management of biomedical installations, mainly oxygen plants, in the government health facilities across the state. As per comprehensive annual maintenance service contract, the service providers will look after maintenance, management and operations of pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants, liquid medical oxygen (LMO) tanks and medical gas pipeline systems (MGPS) including medical gas manifold, generator assembly, zeolite, electric panel and other ancillary items. The department has already floated tenders for this, proposing a maintenance contract for three years, extendable by an additional two years, for 38 PSA plants and 33 MGPS units installed in government hospitals and medical colleges. Health minister Dr Balbir Singh said the decision of hiring service providers has been taken to avoid Jalandhar hospital-like incidents in future. "The service providers will ensure complete repair and maintenance of these units on regular basis besides maintaining complete record of repair, ensuring any sort of replacement, preventive maintenance on quarterly basis and calibration of machines," the minister said. Dr Balbir added that the service provider shall ensure the availability of information, education & communication (IEC) standard operating procedure, checklist and log book related to operation, maintenance and safety of PSA and MGPS including manifold. "Under this, the services engineers will be provided for rectification of complaints, besides ensuring regular testing and quality check," he said. On July 27, three patients, including a 15-year-old snake-bite victim, a 32-year-old drug overdose patient and a 30-year-old lung disease patient, died between 7.15 pm and 7.50 pm due to insufficient oxygen supply. Acting on the report of a probe team, the health department had suspended three doctors, while the services of Dr Shaminder Singh, the house surgeon, and technician Narinder Singh were terminated. The probe found that instead of a technician, a contractual ward attendant - a non-technical employee - was on duty when a malfunction caused the disruption of supply....