Knp gasps for O2 but brass say all is well!

The Kanpur administration maintains that there is no scarcity of oxygen in the city despite incidents to the contrary and doctors accepting that the demand and supply gap was huge. In a late night briefing on Tuesday, district magistrate Alok Tiwari and municipal commissioner Akshay Tripathi addressed reporters and maintained that the oxygen availability was adequate and the situation was being monitored closely. Contrary to their claim, Swaroop Narayan Srivastava, 82, was taken to LLR Hospital suffering from pneumonia and in desperate need of oxygen. His relative, Deepak Srivastava, said that doctors told him to bring his own oxygen cylinder. “Now, we are moving him to a non-Covid private hospital. LLR people were not ready to begin treatment without the cylinder,” he said. LLR Hospital, the biggest hospital, has seen oxygen demand shoot up to 12,000 litres in a day.

KANPUR: The Kanpur administration maintains that there is no scarcity of oxygen in the city despite incidents to the contrary and doctors accepting that the demand and supply gap was huge.

In a late night briefing on Tuesday, district magistrate Alok Tiwari and municipal commissioner Akshay Tripathi addressed reporters and maintained that the oxygen availability was adequate and the situation was being monitored closely.

Contrary to their claim, Swaroop Narayan Srivastava, 82, was taken to LLR Hospital suffering from pneumonia and in desperate need of oxygen. His relative, Deepak Srivastava, said that doctors told him to bring his own oxygen cylinder.

“Now, we are moving him to a non-Covid private hospital. We are lucky, we got a bed. LLR people were not ready to begin treatment without the cylinder,” he said. LLR Hospital, the biggest hospital, has seen oxygen demand shoot up to 12,000 litres in a day, said the doctors, adding that the situation became critical in the early hours of Tuesday. Somehow it was managed.

The LLR Hospital arranged for some 100 cylinders from Bharua Sumerpur in Hamirpur and one tanker is coming from Dehradun daily, said doctors, on condition of anonymity. They said still the supply was not enough considering the influx of patients.

Meanwhile, at Anurag Hospital in Sharda Nagar, an announcement was made for people to take away patients or arrange for oxygen cylinders. The hospital had run out of oxygen and it was not made available.

A patient, Ashutosh, was also allegedly assaulted when he registered his protest with the hospital staff. He had to call the police to save himself as the guard allegedly held him at gunpoint. SHO Kalyanpur Vir Singh confirmed the incident and said it was being looked into.

Oxygen consumption in Covid-19 hospitals has also risen to 53 tonnes in Kanpur. While the

Now, we are moving him to a non-Covid private hospital. We are lucky, we got a bed. LLR people were not ready to begin treatment without the cylinder DEEPAK SRIVASTAVA, relative of pneumonia patient

city had 12 tonnes in stock, 16 tonnes was made available additionally. Another 25 tonnes was on the way from Chandauli.

“At the most it will last less than 24 hours; we need consistent supply,” said a hospital owner whose hospital ran out of essential items for treatment at 3 am on Tuesday. At present, the overall demand was of 8,500 cylinders and the availability was roughly between 5,500, and thus, a shortfall of 3,500 cylinders, said doctors of GSVM Medical College and private hospital owners.

In his briefing, the Kanpur DM said that he had deputed magistrates at four oxygen plants to ensure that the oxygen reaches the right places. Similarly, magistrates have been deployed in all Covid-19 hospitals to check ‘black marketing of beds’ so that patients get a bed conveniently.

Meanwhile, to run the integrated command centre more efficiently, a private company has been hired and it will take over the centre in a day or two, municipal commissioner Akshay Tripathi said.