Lekha G
Just a week after the incident in Jaipur Golden Hospital, 12 Covid patients including a Senior Dr. RK Himthani admitted to the intensive care unit of Delhi’s Batra Hospital died on Saturday due to disruption in oxygen supply.
According to the hospital, it had raised an alarm with all the government appointed officials at 7 am after not receiving its allocated oxygen supply.
Despite this, the hospital did not receive its oxygen supply and completely ran out of liquid oxygen at 12.45 pm on Saturday.
The executive director of the hospital Dr. Bankata said that, “We have been allocated less quantity of oxygen than is needed, so we are constantly running around to get oxygen every day. We have also been linked to two suppliers both of whom do not deliver the oxygen on time. The Delhi Government tanker that was on SOS duty reached the hospital only at 1.35 pm despite having been informed at 7 am”.
Moreover, it was also expressed that the next 24 to 48 hours are critical for some more patients whose condition deteriorated due to the disruption in supply of oxygen.
The hospital has only received 1000 litres of oxygen from the Delhi Government’s SOS tanker, “Which is only going to last for another 1.5 hours”, said Dr. Bankata.
The Court further slammed the Centre and said that, “We direct the Centre to ensure Delhi receives its 490 metric tonnes of medical oxygen today by whatever means. It falls on the Centre to arrange tankers as well. The allocation was made on April 20 and not even one day Delhi has received its allocated supply”.
The Court also said that the hospital must learn a lesson and maybe set up its own oxygen plants.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal described the news as very painful and expressed his grief over a tweet saying that, “These lives could have been saved by giving oxygen on time”, reiterating his government’s demand for medical oxygen.