Oxygen stock running out of breath in Pune

Officials receive at least three to four phone calls from hospitals stating oxygen supply has not reached

Pune: As the demand for oxygen increases in Pune, providing it to each hospital has become really challenging for the civic and district administration. The demand in Pune city and district is for 350 metric tonnes of oxygen per day and the current supply is at 315- 320 metric tonnes per day.

A worker loads oxygen cylinder to distribute to hospitals amid rising Covid cases. (ANI (FOR REPRESENTATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY))

Every day officials panic as least three to four phone calls are coming in, stating that oxygen supply has not reached.

On Wednesday, oxygen at one of the hospitals in Chakan ran out and the authorities needed to shift patients to another hospital. Two days earlier, the same scenario unfolded at a Jumbo hospital in Shivajinagar.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) additional commissioner SB Patil is in charge for co-ordinating oxygen supply in the Pune city and district. He was unavailable for comment on the shortage.

PMC officer Srinivas Kandul is coordinating oxygen supply to PMC hospitals and Covid centres.

Kandul said, “Oxygen supply is really very tight. Every day there are crises at some hospital. PMC’s total demand for civic-body-run Covid centres is 42 metric tonnes and we are not getting oxygen as per demand. There is short of six metric tonnes, but we are managing.”

A doctor working at a government hospital, also speaking anonymously, said, “As the surge is very high and many patients are critical, oxygen demand increases all of a sudden. Now doctors need to keep in mind things like oxygen supply. This creates a greater burden on the medical fraternity as they need to handle the situation in the wards.”