With patients on brink, GMC’s SOS calls to CMO unanswered

PANAJI: Since April 4, Goa Medical College (GMC) has been frantically sending SOS calls, even to the chief minister’s office, pleading for oxygen supply to be restored as close to 500 patient’s lives were at risk. The phone calls, around 20 of them in a short span of an hour, went unanswered even as patients convulsed, gasped and died at GMC.
Oxygen supply through GMC’s central line is erratic, putting the lives of patients who are on non-invasive ventilation, those with severe Covid pneumonia and those with acute respiratory distress, at risk.

Documents in possession with TOI show that while the state government covered up the deaths and repeatedly insisted that the state had sufficient oxygen supply, patients continued to lose their lives between 2am and 6am.
Sources within the health department released documentary evidence showing how calls were made every night to Scoop Oxygen, the chief minister’s office and other authorities asking for oxygen supply to be restored immediately.
On Tuesday, the oxygen supply dipped at 4:41am and doctors immediately sent an SOS asking for the supply to be replenished. Ten attempts were made to reach the supplier, but the phone was switched off. The proprietor of Scoop Oxygen was called five times and finally with no response coming, a call was made to the chief minister’s office at 5.17am.
“During this time (36 minutes) one patient desaturated to 80 SPO2 and was ventilated with the oxygen cylinder,” the document states.
TOI has itself received and reported about SOS calls from patients and their relatives every night pleading for oxygen.
The records show that on Tuesday the O2 supply dipped again at 5.42am and then again 6.34am, 8.45am and 10.20am in wards and in the operation theatre.
“The supply of the central oxygen has remained interrupted till date, leading to a critical fall in the oxygen saturation of the comorbid, physiologically compromised patients with severe Covid pneumonia. This has increased the mortality and morbidity of these critical hospitalised patients,” said an urgent note moved by some of the doctors at GMC.
On an average, GMC has around 400 patients who require oxygen support to survive. Each patient requires two to three oxygen cylinders per day based on the severity of the infection. So while GMC required anywhere between 860 to 930 cylinders, to sustain patients, GMC received just 330 to 630 oxygen cylinders over the last five days.
“There are frequent interruptions on a daily basis. The uninterrupted supply of central oxygen at adequate pressure as well as cylinder oxygen is vital for the management of Covid patients,” said the note.