Health officials to check oxygen use at hospitals

The district administration is planning to deploy health officials at private hospitals for conducting checks to ensure that medical oxygen is being used judiciously

The district administration is planning to deploy health officials at private hospitals for conducting checks to ensure that medical oxygen is being used judiciously.

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Amandeep Chauhan, district drugs controller officer, who is part of the oxygen management team, said, “We are focusing on proper management of oxygen and ensuring that it does not go to waste. We are planning to deploy our existing health officials at private hospitals, who would be conducting regular checks to ensure that there is no misuse, leakage or black marketing being done.”

He said that the team has not received any complaint so far about black marketing of oxygen at private hospitals, but officials are being extra cautious due to the high demand.

“We are trying to ensure that all hospitals get the required amount of oxygen, with no hospital getting extra or less than the requirement. We are calculating the requirement of different hospitals based on the number of oxygen and intensive care unit (ICU) beds available at each facility,” Chauhan said.

Meanwhile, officials of the health department said that many hospitals are not taking proper measures for distributing oxygen to patients and placing excessive demands, whereas the condition of the patient can be managed by either giving steroids or other medicines.

“We understand that the demand for oxygen is high and patients need it, but there are known medical procedures or medicines that can be given to patients to stabilise their condition without giving them oxygen. If hospitals follow these medical procedures correctly, then oxygen supply can be diverted to patients who actually need it; there are many patients in home isolation who also need oxygen but are not able to get it,” said a senior health official, requesting anonymity.

The official cited above said that the health officials deployed at private hospitals will also be able to keep a check on whether apt medical procedures are being followed and families do not have to run from pillar to post for procuring oxygen for the patients.

At present, Gurugram is allotted 40 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen but is currently in possession of additional stock due to increased supply over the past few days. The district received 43 MT of oxygen on Monday from plants in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and neighbouring Panipat, besides a consignment from the oxygen express train on its route from Rourkela to neighbouring Faridabad. The supply was eight metric tonnes more than the supply on Sunday, said officials.