Hospitals keep checking their supply meters
NEW DELHI: Hospitals in the national capital on Sunday continued to remain on edge, operating with precariously low oxygen supplies, waiting endlessly for refills and resetting the clock again to count the hours for which the replenishment will last.
The Delhi government-run Lok Nayak hospital — the biggest Covid-19 facility in the city — was running on backup stock after running out of its main supply. The hospital received supply around 10am when it had just two hours of stock. The medical director of Jaipur Golden Hospital where at least 20 patients in critical care died of alleged low oxygen pressure on Sunday, had to refuse new admissions over erratic supplies.
The Pentamed hospital in Model Town sent out an SOS on Twitter around 11.30am, saying it had oxygen stock that will last only for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, after an all-night scramble for an oxygen refill, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital received five metric tonnes of medical oxygen in the early hours of Sunday, hospital officials said.
The Delhi high court on Saturday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to coordinate on the issue of making medical oxygen available to hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, observing that citizens cannot be left to die. The court also made it clear that the efforts which Delhi government has to make in this regard cannot be trivialised and they should not leave it entirely to the central government.
While some hospitals have managed to make short-term arrangements, there is no immediate end to the crisis in sight. Metro Hospital, in Gurgaon’s Palam Vihar, claiming to be in its “last leg of medical oxygen”, made an urgent appeal for help to
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and other ministers on Sunday.
The Delhi government on Sunday announced setting up a portal on which real time information relating to oxygen supply and stocks will be made available.
“Availability of oxygen is a major problem now. So, it has become very important to manage what we have with us,” Kejriwal said in a video press briefing on Sunday.
Referring to the oxygen supply issues at Lok Nayak hospital, medical director Dr Suresh Kumar said, “We had exhausted our oxygen stock and were using the backup which would have lasted for two hours only.” AAP MLA Raghav Chaddha, who is also the chairman of LNJP Hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti, tweeted about the cryogenic tanker on its way to refill oxygen stock in the hospital.
“Within the next 30 minutes, LNJP will receive liquid oxygen supply via cryogenic tanker. The tanker is on its way,” he tweeted around 9.55am on Sunday.
Officials at the Jaipur Golden Hospital in Rohini said they continued to face oxygen supply problems and denied admission requests from more patients on Sunday, a day after it reported 20 deaths amid shortage of the lifesaving gas.
“We are having to deny SOS admission requests for COVID patients requiring hospital care,” the hospital tweeted. Around 6pm, hospital’s medical director DK Baluja said he had been assured by officials that an oxygen tanker would reach within half an hour.
Gautam Singh, the head of Shri Ram Singh Hospital and Heart Institute, also posted a video message on social media, requesting an oxygen refill for his 100-bed healthcare facility in east Delhi.