Oxygen supply to private hospitals increased

Officials of the health department, as well as hospital administrations, said that the oxygen supply has stabilised in the district, with fewer SOS calls, an increase in oxygen cylinders and reduced waiting time for oxygen beds and cylinder refills pointing to a move in the right direction

Officials of the health department, as well as hospital administrations, said that the oxygen supply has stabilised in the district, with fewer SOS calls, an increase in oxygen cylinders and reduced waiting time for oxygen beds and cylinder refills pointing to a move in the right direction.

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The district is receiving nearly 46 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen at present, against a demand of 60 MT, district administration officials said.

Yash Garg, the deputy commissioner of Gurugram, said that they are regularly getting oxygen supply from Rourkela and Angul in Odisha, Bhiwadi in Rajasthan and neighbouring Panipat, following which the situation has stabilised. “We are getting nearly 46 MT of oxygen every day and we need 60 MT to meet the demand. The process is streamlined and the district administration is monitoring the demand and supply directly to ensure families (of Covid-19 patients) do not have to arrange for oxygen cylinders,” he said.

Private hospitals that were receiving five to 10 cylinders earlier are now getting as many as 50 cylinders, as they no longer have to shuttle between different plants to get oxygen.

Dipankar Sethi, general manager (operations) of Sethi Hospital in Model Town, said that they are receiving at least 19 oxygen cylinders per day and the supply is regular. “Earlier, we hardly used to get six cylinders and were facing challenges to admit Covid-19 patients. Now, with the regular supply, the staff are focussing more on the Covid ward and only one vehicle is used to get supply from the designated station,” he said.

The queue at all refilling station has also been streamlined and the stations are divided between the hospitals to avoid confusions.

SP Yadav, the managing director of Pushpanjali Hospital in Civil Lines, said that their quota has been increased to 50 cylinders a day. “We have 31 Covid beds and are getting regular oxygen supply. The families do not have to struggle to arrange for the same,” he said.

Garg said that the demand is rising exponentially as the number of serious patients is also rising. “We are distributing as per the demand and also to ensure there is no distress situation at any hospital. In case of any emergency, we have directed the hospitals to get in touch with me so that oxygen can be sent to them without any delay,” he said.

Anil Khatana, the head of operations at W Pratiksha Hospital in Sector 56, said that they have 37 Covid beds and hardly used to get 20 oxygen cylinders earlier but the same has now increased to 100. “The district administration increased our quota to 100 on Monday. More than three vehicles used to run to different locations to get oxygen and used to wait for more than seven hours to get them refilled. Now, we get supply from only one station and there is no waiting period also. We also used to ask patients to arrange for cylinders, which is no more the case,” he said.

The regional transport authority, in a bid to streamline oxygen supply in the district, converted 12 nitrogen and argon tankers into oxygen tankers to enable transportation of oxygen from two plants in Odisha.

Officials said that the increased supply of oxygen over the past two days has helped in reducing the number of distress calls from hospitals.

Dr Prithvi Raj Aryan, the director of Aryan Hospital on Old Railway Road, there are nearly 80 Covid patients admitted to the hospital, for whom they are getting 70 oxygen cylinders every day. “The refilling stations which were demanding exorbitant rates are controlled by the district administration and now, there is no struggle to get cylinders refilled. The staff which was busy getting oxygen waiting in long queues are now taking care of Covid-19 patients and regularly updating district administration regarding the oxygen supply,” he said.

Garg appealed to hospitals not getting a regular oxygen supply to contact him for a quick resolution of the issue.