Oxygen shortage hits pvt hospitals

NMMC hospitals have sufficient back-up, says civic body; fresh order for supply of Remdesivir placed

NAVI MUMBAI: The shortage of oxygen supply is felt in private Covid hospitals across Navi Mumbai, said the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).

On the other hand, the NMMC hospitals have back-up of more than 50 per cent oxygen as on Thursday. The civic body has asked private hospitals to always maintain a back-up of oxygen for three days at least as the refill of oxygen takes more than 48 hours.

The corporation informed that distress calls from private hospitals falling short of oxygen have increased since the start of this month.

Currently, NMMC has 100 Dura cylinders with a capacity of 175 cubic metres available with them. “On a daily basis, the corporation needs at least six cylinders. At times, when the private hospitals run short of the oxygen cylinders, we provide them on a loan basis,” assistant municipal commissioner, Sanjay Kakade, said.

Initially, it took 24 hours to refill one oxygen cylinder. Now, it takes up to 48 hours due to the increased demand, putting pressure on the refilling tanks, said NMMC commissioner Abhijit Bangar.

“While the corporation has almost 10 times the required oxygen, the private hospitals do not maintain the back-up. We have informed them that during current times, one cannot work based on demand. There is an overall shortage of oxygen and the nodal officers of the corporation are spreading awareness among the private hospitals about keeping a back-up,” Bangar

said.

The guardian minister, Eknath Shinde, on Tuesday visited the company in Taloja that manufactures oxygen and took stock of the situation.

Bangar added, “The Company has assured that there will be no shortfall from their end in the supply. I am taking feedback daily on the situation of oxygen as there have been instances of distress calls from hospitals alerting us that there’s only an hour’s stock of oxygen remaining. In the last four days, three such hospitals made distress calls. The nodal officers are asking the hospitals to create a three-day buffer of oxygen to avoid a panic situation. Soon, we would hold a meeting with all the distributors and manufacturers,” Bangar added.

Apart from the oxygen, another major shortfall faced by the corporation is of the Remdesivir injection.

The injection that was available for ₹700 is sold at ₹1,500 by the distributors. “We have placed an order (with Cipla) for 12,000 injections and expect them soon,” Kakade said.

BACHCHAN KUMAR/ HT PHOTO A cyclist rides past a stock of oxygen cylinders arranged at the NMMC-run Covid centre at the Cidco exhibition centre, Vashi, on Thursday.