Covid-19: Delhi hospitals send out SOS calls for oxygen

A patient, wearing an oxygen mask, sits outside Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP), one of India's largest facilities for coronavirus patients only, in New Delhi, India, April 22, 2021. Credit: Reuters Photo

Hospitals in the national capital region were on the edge with the shortage of medical oxygen for patients, which forced them to move courts, reach out to the government frantically to ensure supplies.

Complaints of shortages of oxygen over social media, appeals to the Delhi government and the Centre kept pouring in throughout the day, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in to remove the bottlenecks in the supplies of the crucial lifesaver drug.

“As I tweet, an oxygen tanker is outside the gate of Air Liquide Panipat plant at IOCL and he is not being allowed inside. Haryana police are stopping it & not letting the oxygen out of Haryana. Need urgent intervention,” Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals took to Twitter around noon.

Fortis Hospital in Haryana, on Thursday evening, said that it had only 45 minutes of oxygen left and its tanker from Bhiwadi in Rajasthan was yet to reach the hospital.

“We have requested doctors to discharge whoever can be discharged,” Dr Sunil Saggar, CEO of Shanti Mukand Hospital in East Delhi told ANI.

Delhi government officials said nine private hospitals in the national capital had barely a few hours of oxygen supplies left, while six hospitals had exhausted their stock.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia sent an urgent communication to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, appealing to intervene and ensure supplies of oxygen to the hospitals in the national capital.

Read: Haryana government official stopped oxygen supply, says Manish Sisodia

The Centre had enhanced the quota of oxygen to the national capital from 378 metric tonnes to 480 metric tonnes on Wednesday, but Sisodia claimed that the supplies were erratic.

The Delhi Police stepped in to rescue Batra Hospital in South Delhi, which reported only two hours of oxygen late Wednesday night and oxygen tankers from Panipat in Haryana and Modi Nagar in Uttar Pradesh had not reached.

The police personnel arranged for 60 empty oxygen cylinders from an industrial area in the vicinity and ensured timely supplies, while another team of officers ensured oxygen supply to Manipal Hospital in Dwarka.

A green corridor was created for an oxygen tanker headed for Max Hospital, Saket, which was stuck in traffic at the Apsara Border in north Delhi.

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