This story is from April 30, 2021

Delhi hospitals’ O2 meters continue to run very low

Delhi hospitals’ O2 meters continue to run very low
Rainbow Hospital, which is a Covid facility for children and mothers, almost ran out of oxygen on Thursday morning and had supply left only for an hour.
NEW DELHI: The oxygen crisis at Delhi’s hospitals isn’t over yet. At 9.41pm on Thursday, Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital in Tahirpur became the first Delhi government Covid facility to send an SOS through Twitter stating that the pressure in its oxygen supply setup cannot be sustained beyond midnight due to the depletion in the cylinder stock.
“Urgent help required,” the hospital tweeted on its official handle. TOI tried to contact the hospital authorities, but there was no response.
The 350-bed hospital has already reduced the number of its Covid beds.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital may face the same problem around 4am on Friday if its vendor doesn’t bring an additional supply by midnight. Sources at the hospital said its liquid oxygen stock as on 8pm on Thursday was 1,200 cubic metre.
“The hospital consumes around 10,000 cubic metre per day and the required minimum supply is 11,000. Our vendor sent us four tonnes of oxygen around 9.30pm, but it will go on only till 4am on Friday. The vendor has promised to send more supply by midnight,” said a source.
Other smaller hospitals, such as Aastha Hospital near Vikaspuri, which were facing a severe oxygen crunch on Wednesday, continued to struggle even on Thursday. The hospital managed to survive the day only because many patients were carrying a backup.
Rainbow Hospital, which is a Covid facility for children and mothers, almost ran out of oxygen on Thursday morning and had supply left only for an hour. It took to Twitter and was later helped by the authorities.

At Sehgal Neo Hospital, too, only an hour’s supply was left around 4pm. The hospital was facing the shortage as its vendor had been changed and the new vendor was not supplying liquid oxygen. Dr Narin Sehgal, owner of the hospital, told TOI, “I don’t know how our vendor has changed. The new one says he supplies only cylinders and doesn’t have the supply we need. We are calling our old vendor who is saying he cannot supply. We have 120 Covid patients, out of which 74 need oxygen support and 13 are in the ICU.”
Tanush Gupta of Gupta Multispecialty Hospital in Vivek Vihar said, “We have been running around to refill our cylinders. We cannot admit any patient and are somehow managing. Our men are waiting in queues for hours and hours only to be told that the supply is over. Our vendor is not supplying.”
Vimhans Hospital also had an oxygen crisis and ran out of liquid oxygen. The hospital later started using oxygen cylinders. The Covid facility had 203 patients.
Saroj Hospital in Rohini, another Covid facility, is catering to 138 patients, 80% of whom need constant oxygen supply, and faced the same crunch on Thursday too.
At Orchid Hospital in Janakpuri, which is a non-Covid facility, oxygen was running out and the hospital had to ask relatives of the patients to look for another place as it was unable to refill.
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