‘Told patients’ kin to beg, borrow or steal’: Jittery hospitals on oxygen edge in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: After Fortis on Thursday and Artemis on Friday, it was Max and Mayom on Saturday that sent out oxygen SOSs as they faced the frightening scenario of running out with just two hours of supplies left.
Mayom officials said they were forced to request patients’ families to arrange for oxygen cylinders themselves.

It triggered another scramble in the district administration to rush oxygen to these hospitals.
With assurances of adequate oxygen supply not translating into reality, hospitals have themselves become a bundle of nerves as the pandemic spirals to new peaks daily.
Max Hospital sent out a tweet at 11.20am. “SOS — less than 2 hours’ oxygen supplies at Max Hospital Gurugram... Over 70 Covid patients admitted. Supplies expected at 10am diverted,” the tweet said. It was followed by an appeal by Mayom Hospital at 11.43am. “Dear @cmohry @mlkhattar — urgent SOS help needed. We are running out of oxygen. Reached a situation where we are forced to shift ventilators between critical patients. Losing battle if we don’t get urgent supply,” the hospital tweeted.

Max said it was provided with 1.5 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen by the district administration around 3pm. “Update: We received our oxygen supplies. A huge thanks to @cmohry @dc_gurugram @anilvijminister @mlkhattar @gurgaonpolice @drharshvardhan @pmoindia @piyushgoyal for the promptness and for creating a green corridor to get this supply in time,” it tweeted.
Mayom, on the other hand, said it hadn’t received any oxygen from the authorities.
“We are struggling to get the next batch of cylinders and are dependent on private players for oxygen. The administration has only given us verbal assurances, but there is no consistent source of supply. We have more than 80 Covid patients, including 20 ICU patients and 10 on ventilators. We have been compelled to send attendants of patients to beg, borrow or steal and somehow get oxygen,” said Dr Manish Prakash, medical superintendent, Mayom.
District administration officials said the main problem is that most of the private firms providing oxygen to hospitals have cut off supply, due to which the hospitals were approaching the government for oxygen.
Gurugram has been allocated 35 MTof oxygen a day at present.
Deputy commissioner Dr Yash Garg said the demand was fluctuating daily depending on the number of critical patients and Haryana has requested the Centre to increase their allocation of oxygen.
“The allocation for the state is 127 MT and I believe we will be getting 162 MT from Sunday. With Haryana’s quota increasing, Gurugram’s quota for oxygen will also increase.”
Meanwhile, other city hospitals also raised concerns over oxygen supplies running out. A doctor tweeted that patients were being given oxygen at low pressure to maximise the time oxygen remained available.
“We received our main supply from a private firm on Friday. Two smaller bridging supplies were given by the administration. The current supply will last till Sunday evening. We will bank on private supply to refill our cylinders every alternate day,” said a spokesperson for Artemis Hospital.
“We are seeing a huge surge in Covid patients requiring oxygen support in the last fortnight. We were to get our daily supply from INOX Bhiwadi, however, our supply has been deeply affected and delayed in the last few days. The government has issued orders to the plant to fulfil our requirements. We hope that with this order, supply will be streamlined now,” said Dr Ritu Garg, zonal director, Fortis Memorial Research Institute.