Gurugram patients to get oxygen cylinders at home from today

GURUGRAM: From Sunday, Gurugram residents can avail of home delivery of oxygen cylinders with the district Red Cross Society and local non-government organisations tying up with the district administration.

Residents who need oxygen cylinders for treatment of Covid-19 patients at home will have to register at www.oxygenhry.in, a centralised database for the NGOs, and provide documents, including Aadhaar card number, a photo of the oximeter displaying the oxygen level or prescription from a doctor. Once the request is accepted, the applicant will get details, including tracking, on their mobile number through an SMS, said officials.

Officials said payment for the service “will be nominal” and will be fixed by the deputy commissioner of Gurugram. Several modalities, including how long it will take to deliver, are still being worked out At present, distribution of oxygen in the city is managed by a team of officials from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, police and district administration.

Oxygen cylinders for home isolated patients in the city are being filled by Star Special Gases, a distribution plant in Manesar. “We are currently allocating 90 tokens per day to people seeking cylinders to patients at home,” said HSVP administrator Jitender Yadav, adding that they would increase the number of tokens as the availability of gas improves. Officials said that they have also decided to set up a dedicated cylinder bank in the city for the benefit of Covid patients isolated at home.

The city received 46 MT oxygen -- 20 MT from Bhiwadi, 10 MT from Panipat and 16 MT from Faridabad -- on Saturday. Officials said that due to increase in supply, the situation at private hospitals has improved. Dr Yash Garg, deputy commissioner, Gurugram, said that allocation for cylinder refilling will be fixed and a dedicated bank of empty cylinders will be created so that all requests for oxygen refilling are fulfilled. “The objective of this system is to ensure that whenever a request is made for an oxygen cylinder, the volunteers should deliver a filled cylinder and bring back the empty cylinder. This step will also ensure that family members of patients don’t have to stand in long queues,” said Garg.