JOIN USNGOs addressing SOS calls for oxygen supply
Voluntary networks are working tirelessly to ensure SOS messages for oxygen are attended to.
Many hospitals in Bengaluru have sent out distress messages this week. Social media saw five requests on Monday and seven on Tuesday.
Metrolife was speaking to Saqib Idrees, a volunteer working for Covid relief on Wednesday, when he got an SOS message from a hospital in Yelahanka. It had only four cylinders left.
“Till Saturday I was mainly helping people get beds. I got a call from a patient I had helped. He was crying on the phone saying he required another ICU bed as the hospital, Medax, was asking patients to leave as it was short of oxygen,” he says.
He asked the hospital for a request on its official letterhead and posted it on his Instagram account. He tried calling BBMP officials. “Nothing was working, so I tried to reach K Sudhakar, the health minister,” he says.
He got promises from the minister’s office, but help never came. The letter had meanwhile gone viral and Shifaa Hospital sent 15 of its cylinders to Medax.
BBMP and Heal Bangalore volunteer Radhika Madhusudana was on the ground when Arka Hospital reported an oxygen shortage at 3 am on Tuesday. The hospital staff was running around trying to get three or four cylinders.
Concerned citizens
Manu Joshi (name changed), who fields calls for a volunteer-run organisation, says concerned citizens are making a difference.
“Hospitals are more dependent on volunteers than government channels. We’ve been as helpful as we can in connecting them to the right officials,” he says.
Joshi says the BBMP and the government are helping but not as much as they should be.
“We don’t have the resources or the authority that they do. Hospitals need to be given a proper channel of communication,” he says.
NGO collective for O2 supply
Usman Sharieff, secretary of the Jumma Masjid Trust Board, is at the helm of a collective of NGOs who have created the Oxygen Helpline. “We have procured 47 jumbo cylinders and are helping out those putting out SOS calls,” he says. The group gave oxygen to Medisco Hospital and helped save 25 lives. “While hospitals have mechanisms for filling oxygen, sometimes they are unable to get access quickly, and we fill that gap,” he says. You can contact the collective on 99001 08726.
Disrupted channels
Usman Sharieff, a part of Oxygen Helpline, says oxygen manufacturers are working 24/7 to meet the phenomenal demand. Hospitals contact manufacturers and the government but when they are unresponsive, they turn to volunteers. “Hospitals procure oxygen on a daily basis and sometimes there is a supplier gap. They promise a 11 am delivery and that is delayed by a day. We then give our cylinders to the hospital,” he explains.
Home isolation patients vulnerable
Saqib Idrees, Covid relief volunteer, says many oxygen plants are not heeding requests from individuals and NGOs. This can cause problems for those in home isolation, as they have no official channel for procurement. “We get 600 oxygen requests a day and we are only able to fulfil 60. Patients who don’t get oxygen become critical and require ICU beds, which are not available. It’s like a domino effect that puts more pressure on the healthcare system,” a volunteer explains.
Hoarding of cylinders
Manu Joshi (name changed), a volunteer for an organisation helping with covid relief, says that hoarding of oxygen cylinders is causing an issue. BBMP and Heal Bangalore volunteer, Radhika Madhusudana, agrees. “People are holding on to it, thinking they can sell it for a higher amount or are keeping it in case of an emergency,” she says. “Vendors are facing difficulties in supplying oxygen because they don’t have enough cylinders to fill,” says Manu.