Family members of COVID-19 patients wait to fill their empty cylinders with medical oxygen outside an oxygen filling centre. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra) As Covid cases continue to surge in Gurgaon, with hospital beds running short and a bulk of the patients being treated in home isolation, the district administration has announced that, beginning Sunday, a door-to-door oxygen cylinder distribution service will be started in Gurgaon.
According to officials, for this purpose, patients or their attendants will have to register on an online portal, detailing, among other things, the name and age of the patient, the address where the cylinder is required, the Aadhaar number of the patient, as well as the size of the required cylinder (small/big) and the patient’s oxygen level. To verify the same, the form also asks applicants to upload either a “Photograph of patient with oximeter showing SPO2 level” or “Doctor Prescription”.
The application, once completed, will reflect with both NGOs, who will be involved in this initiative, and the Red Cross Society. Once either of these accept the request, the applicant will receive an SMS confirming the same.
Officials said that only one application can be sent per day from one mobile number.
Officials said a single location will be determined in the district for cylinder refilling and, along with this, arrangements will also be made to create a bank of empty cylinders so that volunteers from NGOs can hand over filled cylinders to patients and bring back empty ones.
“At this time, a lot of Covid patients are in home isolation and several people having other illnesses also need oxygen. Such patients will benefit from this facility of oxygen cylinders being provided at the doorstep and they or their relatives will no longer have to stand in lines to refill oxygen cylinders,” said Yash Garg, Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon.
“In addition, this initiative will help stop black marketing of oxygen cylinders and also ensure that, with patients in home isolation getting oxygen at home, oxygen beds in hospitals will be available for more seriously infected patients,” he said.
Apart from shortage of beds, oxygen supply has emerged as a massive issue in Gurgaon in the last few days. In the hope of smoothening the oxygen cylinder refilling process, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) had, earlier this week, started three counters in the district where tokens are being distributed for liquid medical oxygen between 9 am and 5 pm. Applicants have to produce the RT-PCR report of the patient, Aadhaar Card, address proof, and a doctor’s report for the same. Officials had said that 90 tokens in total are being distributed in this manner per day, which will be valid for two days. After obtaining these, the holders have to go to Star Gas Pant in Sector 7, Manesar, to get oxygen filled.
Black marketing of oxygen cylinders has also emerged as a persistent issue, with police busting multiple groups involved in this in the last few days. Most recently, on May 5, three people were arrested for black marketing of oxygen cylinders, with police seizing 260 cylinders — which they had transported from Maharashtra to Gurgaon — from them.
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