Oxygen crisis deepens in Karnataka with hospitals flagging concern over supply

PTI, May 4, 2021, 2:31 PM IST

Bengaluru: Oxygen crisis deepened in certain parts of Karnataka, including the state capital with hospitals openly raising concern over the gap in oxygen supply.

The development comes close on the heels of deaths of 24 COVID patients in the last two days in Chamarajanagar district allegedly due to oxygen shortage. Though the government maintained that the deaths were not because of shortage of oxygen, it ordered an inquiry in to the incident.

According to sources, some hospital managements in Kalaburagi and Belagavi are reportedly asking patients to bring oxygen cylinders with them. However, the newly appointed district in charge minister of Kalaburagi Murugesh Nirani ruled out any shortage and said he has been monitoring it personally.

He also clarified that the three deaths that occurred today were not due to oxygen paucity.

Reports emerged that Belagavi hospitals are also on tenterhooks due to oxygen scarcity. A few medical centres in Bengaluru too have raised an alarm against the oxygen shortage to treat the critically ill COVID patients.

An executive of the Chaitanya Medical Centre in Yelahanka said there was an oxygen crisis on Monday due to which they had to shift all their COVID patients to other hospitals. “Now we have got the stock of oxygen, which would last for two to three days, but yesterday we shifted all our patients to other hospitals as the stock had exhausted,” the executive said.

Medax Hospitals in RT Nagar here had also flagged the shortage of oxygen. In his letter to the relatives of the COVID patients, the medical director of the hospital Dr Srihari R Shapur wrote that the facility was running out of oxygen and asked them to make necessary arrangements in other hospitals. “This is to inform you that we are running out of oxygen supply. We are unable to provide oxygen care for the patient. We have been informed since May 1 6 pm. We will shortly run out of oxygen by 5 pm on May 3. Kindly arrange for beds in different hospitals. We regret this situation,” Dr Srihari stated in the letter.

Rajmahal hospital too wrote to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike stating that the vendor company was not supplying oxygen despite repeated requests. “In this scenario, managing 30 plus COVID patients is becoming a challenge. We need your immediate intervention and assistance to tide over the situation,” the manager of the hospital said in it.

The Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh too expressed concern over the paucity of the life-saving gas in Rajarajeshwari Medical College in the city. In his video message on Monday, he asked Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to arrange oxygen for the COVID patients.

The COVID scenario has become grim with the state reporting over 40,000 cases per day.

On Monday itself, over 44,000 people tested positive for COVID. As many as 239 people died on Monday alone taking the toll so far to 16,250. The city is reporting over 100 deaths daily ever since the second wave of COVID hit the country.