Amid a serious oxygen crisis in the country, twenty critically ill patients died overnight at Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi, said officials said on Saturday. “The oxygen pressure has dipped as we are running out of stock,” Dr. DK Baluja, the medical director of Jaipur Golden Hospital, told PTI.
He informed that the hospital has over 200 patients and they had only half an hour of oxygen was left at 10:45 am, however, it received the last refill of oxygen around midnight, hours after delay.
The medical director said when asked if the hospital received any help from the government that “Nobody has promised anything. Everybody is saying we will do our best.” Dr Baluja said the hospital has over 200 patients and 80 per cent of them are on oxygen support. Around 35 patients are in the ICU, he said.
According to reports the hospital was to receive its quota of oxygen at 05:30 pm but the supply did not reach it till midnight, and even then, the hospital received just 40 per cent of its allocated quota and is again in a situation of crisis.
This comes a day after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal flagged the severe oxygen crisis faced by the national capital and “catastrophic” events that may follow if Delhi’s demand for liquid medical oxygen is not met. Kejriwal said some state governments are stopping tankers meant for Delhi to meet their requirement.
“Will people of Delhi not get oxygen if there is no oxygen-producing plant here? Please suggest whom should I speak to in Central Govt when an oxygen tanker destined for Delhi is stopped in another state?” Kejriwal said during the Covid-review conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, amid the several states flagging the shortage of medical oxygen in the COVID-19 fight that on Friday Railways and Air Force are being deployed to reduce the transportation time for oxygen tankers and all state governments need to work together to meet requirements of life-saving gas and medicines.
