'Won't be correct to say Delhi exaggerated O2 demand by 4 times'

New Delhi: It would not be correct to say that Delhi "exaggerated" its oxygen needs by four times during the second wave of Covid, AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria, who heads the sub-group that led the audit- has now said, reacting to a report that has set off a new clash between the Centre and Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the Capital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, under fire for purportedly exaggerating the city's needs, insisted the acute shortage of oxygen during Covid's second wave was real. He also appealed for an end to political bickering and for everyone to work together so no one suffers in the third wave. "Delhi oxygen audit is an interim report. We should wait for the final report," Dr Guleria told a private news channel.

Asked whether the report was exaggerated four times, Dr Guleria replied: "I don't think we could say that."

The virus will win if there is a fight among stakeholders, Kejriwal tweeted after the AIIMS chief's remarks were made public. The five-member Supreme Court-appointed panel was headed by Guleria who said: "It is an interim report. The oxygen needs are dynamic and change from day to day. The matter is sub-judice."

While the BJP charged the Delhi government with "criminal negligence" after the report came into the public domain on Friday, AAP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia alleged that the "bogus" report was "cooked up" at BJP's office and had no approval from all members of the sub-group, none of whom had, in fact, even signed the report.

"May we work now if your fight over oxygen is finished? Let us together make a system so no one faces a shortage of oxygen in the third wave," Kejriwal said in his tweet in Hindi, soon after Dr Guleria's comments on Saturday poured water over the narrative that the BJP was setting with the help of this interim report.

"There was an acute shortage of oxygen in the second wave. It should not be so in the third wave. Corona will win if we fight with each other. The nation will win if we fight together," the Chief Minister added.

Dubbing the BJP the Bharatiya Jhagda Party, his deputy Sisodia said its leaders know only how to fight and have nothing to do with either oxygen or the third Covid wave.

"When the third wave will start, they will be causing fights someplace else...," he tweeted in Hindi.

The report of the Supreme Court constituted sub-group to audit oxygen consumption in hospitals in the national Capital during the second wave in April-May said the Delhi government "exaggerated" the consumption of oxygen and made a claim of 1,140 MT, four times higher than the formula for bed capacity requirement of 289 MT.

The panel said the Delhi government had made the claims for allocation of 700 MT oxygen on April 30 of medical grade oxygen using a "wrong formula".

Significantly, the report had incorrectly concluded that the Delhi government had provided this requirement of 1,140 MT, which was clarified by Principal Home Secretary Bhupinder Bhalla that this erroneous data came directly from the hospitals based on a pro-forma created by the sub-group.

In fact, Bhalla had written to all members of the sub-group on Friday, clarifying that the Delhi government had asked hospitals to fill in the data based on the sub-group's pro-forma and that the Delhi government was not making the claim of 1,140 MT requirement.

More importantly, Bhalla pointed out that he had in a detailed note on May 31, responded to the draft interim report, making a slew of corrections to the representations made therein. He noted that despite this communication from his team and all other interjections during the deliberations, none of this was changed and the interim report was sent to the Central government as is without making the changes.

Both Bhalla and Max Healthcare Director Dr Sandeep Budhiraja had objected to the pro-forma for data collection created by the sub-group, pointing out that in no way did this account for all of Delhi's oxygen requirement.

In fact, to help out the sub-group's deliberations and to ensure that as close to accurate data can be used, Bhalla had on multiple occasions during the meetings of the sub-group, suggested that it used the more current data updated by hospitals on their web portal as it was updated twice in a day — and directly by the hospitals.

The report has an annexure of communication sent by Bhalla on May 31 in which he said a reading of the draft interim report makes it painfully apparent that the sub-group, instead of focusing on the task, delineated from the terms of order of the Supreme Court dated May 6.

The manner in which the proceedings of the sub-group were conducted, he said, suggested that the purpose of proceedings was to satisfy a preconceived and predetermined conclusion and narrative to recommend a lower quantity of LMO to Delhi. It was also aimed at further portraying an impression that the assessment by the GNCTD (Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi) before the high court and the Supreme Court was exaggerated or not genuine, Bhalla added.

In his Friday letter to the members of the sub-group, Bhalla noted his disappointment that the Delhi government's remarks, objections and dissent to the process employed by the group had been relegated to the very last pages of the affidavit filed in court as annexures.

He objected to the finding of the sub-group that medical oxygen consumption as per actual bed occupancy was 250 tonnes in late April, 470-490 MT in the first week of May and 900 MT as claimed on May 10.

"This para should be deleted as it is neither correct nor based on verified data. With the number of new positive cases peaking in the first week of May, and hospital bed occupancy continuing to rise even after that, the oxygen requirement based on occupancy was around 625 MT at the end of April and 700 MT in the first week of May," he said.

Regarding the finding that the Delhi government made exaggerated oxygen requirement claims, Bhalla said the GNCTD clarified that the calculation for 700 MT has been made in accordance with the standard oxygen requirement specified by the government of India/ICMR, which is 24 litres per minutes (LPM) for ICU beds and 10 LPM for non-ICU beds.

Doubts about the percentage of non-ICU beds that need oxygen can only be resolved through an actual on-ground audit of hospitals, which the audit sub-group is yet to do, he said.

Budhiraja said in his comments that a decision was taken in the first meeting itself to get actual details of oxygen consumption from all the hospitals of NCT Delhi.

"After repeated corrections (as hospital medical Superintendent used a different format), the total calculation of Oxygen consumption (based on actual consumption data of 214 hospitals) came to around 490 MT. This did not take into account oxygen cylinder refilling and non-COVID requirements of hospitals," Budhiraja said.

He also brought to the notice of the sub-group that he did not attend the May 18 meeting. He said he gave prior information to the group on WhatsApp that the minutes of the previous meeting (held on May 15) should be circulated prior to the fixing of the next meeting.

"This was never done," he had said and added that his comment be added in the interim report.

Besides Guleria, Bhalla and Budhiraja, the panel comprises Subodh Yadav, Joint Secretary in the Jal Shakti Ministry, and Sanjay Kumar Singh, controller of explosives, Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO).