Delhi runs low on oxygen, high on cases for fifth day

For the fifth day in a row, Delhi hospitals and nursing homes posted SOS messages on the social media and wrote to the government, warning their oxygen supplies were running precariously low.

Delhi woke up on Saturday to the news of at least 20 Covid-19 patients dying due to alleged low oxygen pressure at a private hospital in the city as the government scrambled to move medical oxygen to city hospitals amid a raging surge in Covid-19 cases and four medical institutions moving the high court to demand replenishments.

One of the biggest Delhi government-run hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur, had to reduce the number of beds from over 900 to 700 on Saturday due to the high oxygen requirement. (Amal KS/HT PHOTO)

For the fifth day in a row, Delhi hospitals and nursing homes posted SOS messages on the social media and wrote to the government, warning their oxygen supplies were running precariously low.

Jaipur Golden hospital in Rohini, where twenty patients under critical care died, raised alarm twice on Saturday to get oxygen supply. Two other private hospitals in the city completely exhausted their supply and requested their patients to either get an oxygen cylinder or look for beds in other hospitals.

This was at a time when there were just about 12 ICU beds vacant across city hospitals, according to the Delhi government app.

One of the biggest Delhi government-run hospital, Guru Teg Bahadur, had to reduce the number of beds from over 900 to 700 on Saturday due to the high oxygen requirement. According to senior officials, the hospital oxygen plant had been running over capacity due to the high load of Covid-19 patients.

“When a hospital is planned, it is estimated that 20 to 30% of the beds will need oxygen supply. But, since we take in only very sick Covid19 patients, 100% of our beds need oxygen support. And, 50 to 60% of the beds need high flow oxygen. This was putting too much pressure on our plant. So, we decided to reduce the number of beds,” the official said.

Admission to the emergency department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was also restricted for an hour so that the hospital could manage its gas pipeline to meet the increased requirement for oxygen.

Saroj hospital in Rohini, which needs around 3,500 cubic metres of oxygen a day, received 2,250 cubic metres. On Saturday morning, the hospital informed the relatives of the patients to either look for oxygen or oxygen beds in other hospitals.

The family of a 45-year-old patient admitted to the hospital arranged two oxygen cylinders and an oxygen concentrator to ensure that he received continuous care. “What is the hospital supposed to do if they are not getting oxygen? The government should arrange all this,” said the brother of the patient, who did not wish to be named.

At 2.30pm, when the hospital’s oxygen tank ran dry, a team of 180 doctors and nurses were deputed to administer oxygen to patients with small cylinders, usually used while transporting patients.

“We somehow managed to help all our patients. There was a team of 180 doctors and nurses who kept monitoring the oxygen of each patient. The stable ones – not on ventilator or high flow – were given oxygen intermittently to conserve oxygen. The oxygen tanker came to the hospital in the next 35 minutes. If it hadn’t, we wouldn’t have lasted long,” said Dr PK Bharadwaj, chief executive director of the hospital.

Batra hospital ran out of oxygen at 2.30pm on Saturday. The hospital had to refill 210 of its oxygen cylinders thrice to keep the patients going till 4.45pm when it got a refill of medical oxygen. The hospital raised alarm bells at 9am, with oxygen being supplied only to patients on ventilators or dependent on high flow. The rest were being given oxygen through cylinders. Even after receiving the supply, the hospital has decided to keep the flow to the building with non-ICU patients low.

Sir Ganga Ram hospital said healthcare workers had to manually pump oxygen for half a day to at least 29 critical patients who were on ventilator due to reduced oxygen pressure.

“The whole administration is busy in making frantic calls. Patients are suffering. To run ventilators, oxygen reservoir should have 3,000 cubic metres of pressure. We are getting supplies of 500 to 1500 cubic metres only . We have 516 Covid patients, 129 of them in ICU and 29 on invasive ventilation. These 29 patients are on manual ventilation since midnight,” said Dr DS Rana, chairman, Sir Ganga Ram hospital.

Referring to the hearing in the high court, the office of Delhi health minister said as against 480 MT of oxygen allocated to Delhi, only 309 MT was received on Friday, which is the main cause behind the crisis. “Delhi government has also stated that the root cause of this issue was that in the revised allocation plan devised by Central government, for the first time ever, 102 MT of supply for Delhi has been allocated to plants far away in Odisha and West Bengal, more than 1,000 kms away. This was done without Centre making any corresponding arrangement for tankers to supply this oxygen or any consultation with Delhi government,” the health minister’s office said.