Govt orders green corridor for oxygen tankers

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday ordered to provide green corridors for oxygen tankers and to conduct daily audits of oxygen supply, which will be made public every day

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday ordered to provide green corridors for oxygen tankers and to conduct daily audits of oxygen supply, which will be made public every day. This is among the several decisions taken by the government on Monday after 24 people died in a hospital in Chamarajangar district and two hospitals ran short of oxygen supply in Bengaluru.

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On Monday evening, chief minister BS Yediyurappa held a meeting with oxygen manufacturers and suppliers in the state. Apart from offering green corridors, which provide is a special route to the vehicle by manually operating traffic signal to avoid red lights, the government announced several other directions.

As per communication from the Chief Minister’s office, during the meeting, Yediyurappa has asked the oxygen manufacturers to reduce the time taken to re-fill the oxygen tankers. Directions were given to toll gates to avoid unnecessary delay, convert nitrogen and argon tankers available for supplying oxygen, utilize the services of LPG tanker drivers in case of emergency.

In another order on Monday, the government has asked all oxygen re-filling agencies in a particular district and Bengaluru to furnish their total and full accounts of oxygen, every day. The reporting should include the receipts of the day, supply and balance oxygen stock.

“All the oxygen re-filling agencies of a district & BBMP shall every day give a detailed and accurate account of their supply (expenditure) of the Oxygen to the hospitals and other establishments to whom the oxygen is supplied by them and the quantity that is supplied. The said break-up shall match the daily total supply (expenditure),” read a government order dated May 3.

The order further added that the details collected from suppliers will be made public by respective authorities. “The districts and the BBMP shall nominate one Camp Officer, not below the rank of Tehsildar, for each Re-Filler Station falling in their jurisdiction. who shall camp at his/her assigned Re-Filling Station and oversee and ensure that medical oxygen supplies to indenting hospitals are smooth,” the order added.

At the same time, The Clinical Expert Committee of Karnataka chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, RGUHS has recommended guidelines for minimizing wastage and rational use of oxygen in health care facilities in the state.

“The rate of the consumption of oxygen by the hospitals treating COVID-19 patients has revealed that there is indiscriminate and wasteful use of oxygen in many hospitals. Optimal use of oxygen needs to be ensured both for better healthcare of the patient as well as the curtailment of wastage of oxygen as it is a scarce resource,” read a government order.

The guidelines contain details like how to adjust oxygen use to the lowest permissible level along with other advisories. “These guidelines also lay down the responsibility of health team regarding judicial use and the responsibility of the hospital administrators in monitoring and audit of oxygen use. As per the guidelines, each health care facility shall designate an Oxygen Monitoring Team for each shift. Each facility shall also form an Oxygen Audit Committee and submit a report on the use of oxygen pre and post-audit to the Expert Committees constituted by Order No. HFW 276 ACS 2020, dated 29.07.2020. Further, the Expert Committees shall review the action taken by the health care facilities in this regard,” read the government order.