No lack of oxygen now at COVID centre in south Delhi, situation normal: ITBP

NEW DELHI: Oxygen supply at the 500-oxygenated bed COVID care centre in south Delhi has been "normalised" and there is no lack of the life-saving gas for patients there, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) said on Friday.

This for the first time that a comforting development of adequate oxygen supply has been reported from the facility since it was opened about two weeks ago on April 26.

Official sources said while the full sanctioned 6.55 metric tonnes of medical oxygen for the centre was yet to be received, improvisations are being done by deploying some oxygen concentrators and sending oxygen cylinders on a truck to refill them from a BHEL plant situated about 230 kilometres away in Uttarakhand's Haridwar district.

This Delhi government facility, called the Sardar Patel COVID care centre (SPCCC), is located in the Radha Soami Beas campus in south Delhi's Chhattarpur area and the medical wing and doctors of the border guarding force have been entrusted by the Union government to run it.

"Oxygen supply at the centre has been normalised and there is no lack of oxygen for the patients admitted at the centre."

"Adequate medicines are being provided by the district administration to the centre for the admitted patients," ITBP spokesperson Vivek Kumar Pandey said.

The facility till now has been under-utilised as it was not able to admit patients to its full capacity even as the ITBP had issued a statement last week saying that it was facing shortage of medical oxygen and the "Delhi government has been requested to increase oxygen supply so that admissions are increased."

At least 400 patients are admitted to the SPCCC at present, Pandey said.

Till now, over 918 admissions have been made at the centre.

"There are instances when many patients whose oxygen level (saturation) was as low as 60 but after they were provided the much-needed care, many of them have improved to the level of 80-90 saturation level," he said.

Pandey said there have been instances of re-admission at the facility too.

"At least 24 patients have been re-admitted to the centre after they left on their own."

"Later, when they found that better care is being given at the SPCCC, they requested re-admission," he said.

It speaks about the volume of confidence patients have in the centre, the spokesperson said.

"Hundreds of patients who were critical earlier have been given treatment here and their oxygen levels have now become better," he said.

The ITBP said it is also providing services of their stress counsellors for the patients admitted at the facility apart from keeping the premises sanitised and giving regular meals to the inmates.

Meanwhile, ITBP Inspector General (IG) Anand Swaroop, responsible for functioning of the SPCCC, visited the centre and took stock of the arrangements along with the doctors and other staff of the force deputed to run the services there.

Senior ITBP officials are regularly visiting the wards to meet patients, Pandey said.

A medical oxygen generation plant sent by Germany is also expected to be installed at this facility to ensure continuous supply of the gas for patients, a senior officer said.

He also said work was on to install 150 more ventilator beds at the facility after these were recently sanctioned by the Prime Minister's Office.