Delhi govt in spat with Centre over PSAs as hospitals continue gasping
New Delhi: As hospitals in Delhi continued to red-flag their oxygen shortages throughout the day, the Delhi government and the Centre yet again got into a spat over the supposed installation of eight PSA oxygen plants in hospitals here.
While the Centre said that the Delhi government had delayed readying the site for installation of the eight plants, the Delhi government has maintained that it was the Centre that delayed the project, citing a news report that showed tenders were issued for the plants only in October last year.
Moreover, the Delhi government has said that while it had already made sure one plant was installed, the seven others could not be because the contractor engaged by the Centre for the work had "run away".
Officials also highlighted that the city was not even receiving the allocated amount of oxygen and even gave out data for the last week. According to sources in the Delhi government, on April 22, Delhi received 380 MT of the allocated 480 MT, on April 23, the city got 309 MT and on April 24, the city got 335 MT.
All officials in the Delhi government maintain that their requirement is at least 700 MT per day currently.
The 1,500-bedded Lok Nayak hospital, reported on Sunday morning that it was about to run out of oxygen supply only to be saved in the nick of time with reserves from the Delhi government.
AAP MLA Raghav Chaddha, tweeted once again in the evening that another 10MT of oxygen will arrive at LNJP by 10pm.
Jaipur Golden hospital, which lost 20 patients to the oxygen crisis on Friday, once again had to put out SOS calls on Sunday. First, it received a 700-litre emergency top-up from the Delhi government while the INOX tank with 2.5MT oxygen reached the hospital late at night after 10pm.
Irene hospital in Kalkaji also reported on Sunday night that it was close to exhausting all its oxygen supply and put out SOS calls on Twitter around 10:30pm.
Doctors at Pentamed Hospital also said that they were running out of oxygen and that more than a dozen lives will be lost if the supply runs out. "We are spending sleepless nights, we are not able to sleep because of the patients. Everyday we face the same scenario, 2 hours of oxygen, 3 hours of oxygen. We are getting only assurances from the system, no oxygen. This is our only request, we want oxygen, not assurance", a doctor from the hospital said on Twitter. The lives of close to 40 patients are at stake and the hospital had still not received supplies at the time of writing.
Shri Ram Singh Hospital and Heart Institute in East Delhi also put out SOSes on
Sunday evening saying that they had 36 patients on oxygen support of which 16 were in INCU and would run out of supply by 9pm.
Through social media amplification, temporary oxygen supplies reached the hospital by 10:30pm which, along with backup oxygen cylinders, will be enough to tide them over till oxygen refilling takes place.
Sir Ganga Ram Hospital reported on Sunday evening that after their most recent oxygen supply, they had 4,000 cubic meters which would be enough to last till midnight.
