Private hospitals grapple with limited oxygen supply

Ghaziabad: The situation at St Joseph Hospital in Nandgram went out of hand for a brief moment when the hospital ran out of oxygen supply early Wednesday morning and officials were found running pillar to post to procure four cylinders and administer the life-saving gas to 25 patients on Covid beds

Ghaziabad: The situation at St Joseph Hospital in Nandgram went out of hand for a brief moment when the hospital ran out of oxygen supply early Wednesday morning and officials were found running pillar to post to procure four cylinders and administer the life-saving gas to 25 patients on Covid beds.

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Lalit Goel, manager (operations) of St Joseph Hospital, said, “We ran out of oxygen around 4am. At least 25 patients were in need of oxygen at that moment. We somehow managed to arrange four cylinders from private sources and then reached out to the district administration for help. The oxygen supply was regularised later.”

Goel added, “Nowadays, we require around 60-70 oxygen cylinders per day against the previous requirement of 30-35 cylinders. We are planning to install an oxygen generator that will be put in place in three to four days.”

The shortage of oxygen supply has hit several hospitals in Ghaziabad. Officials familiar with the issue said the district needs about 46,000 cubic metre of oxygen supply per day but was getting only about 30,000 cubic metre of oxygen per day.

An official familiar with the developments said that the city, on April 18, received about 12,700 cubic metre of oxygen supply, of which about 5,500 cubic metre was supplied to a single health care facility.

Another private hospital, whose officials requested not to be named, said they were left with only five oxygen cylinders on Monday when at least 55 patients required the life-saving gas. “We repeatedly requested the authorities to regularise the supply and also arranged cylinders on our own from clinics and nursing homes known to us. On Tuesday, 70 more cylinders came and 50 were in operation,” said the officer from the second private hospital.

In an official statement issued on April 20, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath directed that every hospital should have minimum 24 to 36 hours of oxygen backup with them.

“We require about 400 cylinders of oxygen per day and the administration has assured that supply will be regularised. We are trying to add 20 more Covid beds. If we get the supply, we will be able to operate those beds at the earliest. Now, the oxygen supply to industries has stopped so we are expecting the supply to improve further. Our backup supply is being maintained as per cycle,” said Dr Sharad Agarwal, CEO of LeCrest Hospital in Vasundhara.

Officials of the Indian Medical Association, Ghaziabad, also held a a detailed meeting with the district magistrate and other officers on Wednesday afternoon and raised the issue of oxygen supply.

“The hospitals are getting oxygen just-in-time and many hospitals have no backup of 24-36 hours. It is so as the demand has suddenly increased four times due to a surge in Covid-19 infections. There was sudden shortage at some hospitals in the last couple of days and we requested the administration officials to ensure such incidents don’t get repeated in future,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of IMA, Ghaziabad.

During the meeting with IMA office-bearers, the administration said that they have formed a co-ordination committee comprising several officers, including IMA officials, to strengthen co-ordination.

“The oxygen suppliers have been asked not to spread rumours that oxygen supplies are hampered. All the private hospitals are provided with oxygen supply as per their demand. It is also directed those private hospitals having minimum of 50 beds should reserve 10 beds for Covid,” read the statement from the administration.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not respond to calls and queries about the official figures of daily demand and supply, besides the issues being raised by the hospitals.

Shailendra Kumar Singh, additional district magistrate (city) and nodal officer looking after oxygen supplies in the district, said the co-ordination committee will look after the demand and supply of oxygen to private hospitals.

“There is gap but we are trying to manage during the times when demand suddenly increases. We have also made arrangements so that in case oxygen stock goes down in one hospital, nearby hospitals will be able to arrange oxygen for immediate help. We are trying to maintain demand and supply in the district,” he said admitting that the demand and supply figures were not readily available.