With lives on the line, Delhi scrambles for O2
Over 1,000 critically ill Covid-19 patients in Delhi were in imminent danger in the last 24 hours after the hospitals they were in issued distress calls on Wednesday about their oxygen supplies running perilously low, with a bigger tragedy being averted with minutes to spare as frantic interventions by government officials helped secure replenishments.
HT is aware of at least 11 facilities, whose executives either sent SOS letters to the government or spoke directly to report low stocks. At least six of them said the crisis was because officials in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana had stopped trucks from leaving the facilities, a problem that deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia too reported.
The crisis came into focus late on Tuesday when officials announced GTB Hospital, with 500 patients, was to run out of oxygen by 2am, triggering a scramble that was closely watched on social media where thousands of people counted down the anxious hours. It was around 1.30am when the first images confirmed the arrival of a cryogenic truck from Uttar Pradesh.
Hours later, officials of Indraprastha hospital, Manipal hospital and Max hospital wrote to the government, flagging the crisis. Max hospital also moved the Delhi High Court, which pulled up the Union government, a day after it had criticised it in another hearing over the same issue.
“Over the past few days, we have been under extreme duress due to the interruptions and delays in supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen. On the intervening night of April 20 and 21... Their (supplier’s) officials informed us that due to local administration’s intervention in Greater Noida, the supply to Delhi has been stopped. While we used to have three days of oxygen supply in our inventory, this has not reduced to around 10-12 hours of supply,” said a letter from the Indraprastha Apollo hospital to the Delhi health minister, seen by HT.
On Wednesday afternoon, Dr John Punnoose, associate medical
director of St Stephen’s hospital, made a panicked call to HT. “We have oxygen stock left for just two hours and our supplier has been stopped at Haryana border. There are nearly 300 Covid-19 patients, most of who are on oxygen. In addition, we are running the casualty department and the operation theatres where oxygen is needed. There will a big problem if we do not get the oxygen in time,” he said, expecting to run out of supply by 6pm. The facility used some back-up cylinders, before its supply truck arrived at 6.45 pm.
Delhi’s oxygen requirement has soared to nearly three times what is normal as a tsunami of Covid-19 infections has filled up city hospitals with serious and critical cases. The situation has prompted Delhi government officials to send out multiple requests to the central government, which manages oxygen stock distribution, to raise its quota, even the state and its neighbours exchanged allegations of impeding supplies.
Big hospitals use liquid medical oxygen pumped through a gas
pipeline in their wards. Oxygen cylinders can be attached to the supply line in cases of emergency, but need to be closely monitored and changed frequently.
“We have a reserve of large oxygen cylinders for emergency situations such as this that would have sustained the patients for another two to three hours. Currently, we need as much oxygen a day as we used to get in three or four days earlier,” said the director of the St Stephens hospital, Dr Sudhir Joseph.
The hospital receives its 2,000 cubic metres of oxygen supply in two deliveries in the morning and evening. However, the supplier missed its delivery on Wednesday morning, leading to the crisis.
The smaller 34-bed nursing home Irene hospital in Kalkaji, which needs 150 cylinders, received only 30 on Wednesday morning. “We receive around 50 cylinders in three deliveries from our supplier. Today, we were given 30 cylinders in the morning with no assurance for further supply,” said Dr Mohd Shariq, the Covid-19
unit head at the hospital. The hospital sent its staff out to look for cylinders in afternoon. “The staff has managed to get some cylinders and are on their way back,” the hospital said at 07:30 pm.
Similar distress messages were sent by two other nursing homes. Rathi hospital in Najafgarh-nangloi took to Twitter to announce they were running out of oxygen. The hospital uses up 360 cylinders a day for 78 Covid-19 patients it has. “We have an oxygen station nearby that fills our cylinder every two or three hours. They refused us in the afternoon today; saying they have no oxygen,” said Kaushtub Tiwari, head, marketing and operations at the hospital.
After a frantic search, the hospital managed to get 31 cylinders from other nursing homes.
In Rohini, the director of Solanki nursing home tweeted: “Trying to arrange oxygen for my patients since 5 pm. Concerned officials hv been informed timely, telephonically n on official Whatsapp.request to transfer out 30 COVID19 patients”.
“(For) around 2 hours that my oxygen carrier vehicle is doing to n fro for oxygen. Pooth-bawanamundka-pooth,” said Dr Pankaj Solanki, medical director of the hospital.
At six in the evening, one of the city’s largest private hospitals in Northwest Delhi, Max hospitalshalimar Bagh, issued a distress message. The hospital just had two hours of oxygen supply with no assurance of replenishment. The facility had run out of oxygen late on Tuesday and had to rely on cylinders sourced from other hospitals in the Max network.
“Yesterday night, the oxygen supply to the hospital was disrupted as an oxygen tanker on its way to refill the oxygen tanks at Max hospital, Shalimar Bagh was diverted. This led to a situation where the hospital’s oxygen tanks ran dry,” said a letter from the hospital to the Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain.
The crisis prompted a war of words between Delhi and Haryana. “We are being forced to give our oxygen to Delhi. First, we’ll complete our needs, then give to others. Yesterday, one of our oxygen tankers which was going to Faridabad, was looted by Delhi government. From now, I have ordered police protection for all tankers,” Haryana health minister Anil Vij said.
Later, Delhi’s deputy CM said hospitals had reported that a supplier in Faridabad – which was meant to send the replenishments to Stephens and some of the others -- stopped sending trucks since a Haryana official was restricting their departure.
“If the oxygen gets over, patients on the ventilators will die within minutes and the others within a couple of hours. This is a matter of life and death,” said Sumit Ray, medical superintendent of Holy Family hospital where 375 Covid-19 patients were admitted as on Wednesday evening.
Doctors from Indraprastha Apollo hospital too said they were waiting anxiously for their replenishments. “With the increase in the oxygen consumption, the situation has been tight for the last one week,” said a doctor from the hospital, asking not to be named.