Delhi HC stipulates midnight deadline for oxygen supply

Water has gone above the head... enough is enough

Anguished at the deaths of Covid-19 patients at the Batra Hospital in the city, the Delhi high court on Saturday gave the Centre a midnight deadline to ensure that the allocation of 490 metric tonnes of medical oxygen reaches the Capital. Failing this, the court said it will initiate contempt action against the central government officials concerned.

“Water has gone above the head. Now we mean business. Enough is enough… Do you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi?,” a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said when the Centre’s counsel said the issue of oxygen is also being heard before the Supreme Court.

“We direct the central government to ensure Delhi receives its allocated supply of 490MT positively today [Saturday], by whatever means,” the bench said.

The bench also asked the Centre to ensure they make cryogenic tankers available for the city, while noting that Delhi has not received the 490MT of oxygen that it has been allocated even once. It also declined the Centre’s request to defer the order. “We have passed an order. You comply with that. That’s the end of it,” the court said.

The oxygen crisis in the national capital worsened on Saturday, with hospitals across the city sounding the alarm as their stocks ran low, on a day when at least 12 people died at Batra Hospital after an 80-minute disruption in oxygen supply.

Saturday’s crisis was largely due to another shortfall in Delhi’s supplies, with the Capital once again not receiving its allocated quota of medical oxygen. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on the day said Delhi received only 312MT out of its allocated share of 490MT on Friday. This shortfall, he said, has held up the state’s plan to increase the number of beds for Covid-19 patients.

Among the hospitals that ran perilously short of oxygen on Saturday were the state government-run Guru Teg Bahadur and Rajiv Gandhi hospitals. Officials said the two received emergency supplies in the “nick of time.”

“We had all our faculty members and resident doctors lined up to give oxygen to patients using small cylinders and even manually in case the hospital ran out. The tanker arrived just in time,” said a senior doctor from GTB Hospital.

A doctor from Rajiv Gandhi hospital, which is treating 350 patients on critical care beds, said, “We only have ICU beds in the hospital. If the oxygen were to run out, we would not have been able to save all the patients. We have a hand-to-mouth situation with oxygen every day.”

Though the hospital has been allocated nearly 13MT of oxygen a day, officials said it doesn’t receive that amount.

Oxygen quotas have been “rationed” due to supply shortages, said several hospitals.

“The biggest bottleneck is that Delhi requires 700MT of oxygen daily but was allocated 490MT, which never comes. Our requirement (depending on the number of ICU and non-icu beds) was assessed to be 6.5MT but we were allocated only 4.9MT because of this shortage. In the meantime, because we have more patients, our needs have gone up to 7MT. We can’t refuse patients crying out for help,” said Dr Sudhanshu Bankata, executive director, Batra Hospital.

With the government maintaining a reserve of 11MT to resolve crises in hospitals, and allocating 16.8MT for refilling cylinders for hospitals, ambulances, and individuals, the quota of the hospitals had to be reduced further by 7MT, as per an April 29 order on oxygen quotas.

Dr CM Bhagat, medical director of Bhagat Chandra hospital in Palam, said, “I am managing with just 50% of the quota. The refiller I have been linked to caters to other hospitals, which need 19MT oxygen. But the firm gets just 8.5MT of supply.” The hospital ran out of oxygen on Saturday evening and managed patients with low-pressure oxygen from a small oxygen generation plant it has. The hospital had to remove two patients from high-flow oxygen systems and manually pump air for five patients on ventilator support.

“We have assigned 3 D-type cylinders from Mayapuri Response Point to the hospital. Officials of Bhagat Chandra Hospital are rushing to collect it,” tweeted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha.

Meanwhile, Sant Parmanand hospital said constantly changing linkages to refillers also posed a problem. “We have to run from one refilling station to another. We need more cylinders as several beds have been added to increase capacity for Covid-19 patients. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that oxygen reaches us.”

Kejriwal said the shortage has resulted in hospitals across the city sending out SOS calls again. “As against 976 MT needed by Delhi, if only 312MT is being provided, how are things supposed to work out?” he said.

“It is only because of lack of oxygen that patients are having to wait for hours or even days outside hospitals or other Covid care facilities... If we get our full quantum of oxygen today, at least 9,000 oxygenated beds will be ready in Delhi within 24 hours,” he said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in another order, the state asked retailers and districts to ensure that procurement or refilling of oxygen cylinders by individuals is allowed only after checking their ID, the patient’s ID as well as production of a doctor’s prescription prescribing medical oxygen to the Covid-19 patient.