NEW DELHI: Shortage of oxygen resulted in the death of 12 COVID-19 patients at Batra Hospital on Saturday. One of the victims was RK Himthani, head of the gastroenterology department of the hospital.
Dr SCL Gupta, medical director of the hospital, said six of the deceased were in ICU on high flow of oxygen, including the doctor.
He was admitted for the last 15-20 days. "There were patients who could have survived, beat the virus but they could not because of oxygen shortage. If you are providing oxygen, provide regularly. The government should take some decision, either close the hospital or admission. What was the fault of those patients who died due to shortage of oxygen?" he said.
Hospital authorities had raised an alarm over depleting stocks of oxygen at around noon, after which AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, who is monitoring oxygen supply to several hospitals in the city, said supply was reaching the hospital.
"Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged ‘lack of oxygen supplies’ and is being pulled up," he tweeted.
Gupta said they had informed authorities about lack of oxygen in the morning when they had 2,500 litres left. At around 12.30 pm, hospital authorities claimed they had run out of oxygen. The oxygen tanker arrived at 1.35 pm, he added.
Expressing grief, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal once again flagged the issue of short supply of oxygen to Delhi. "This is very painful. Their lives could have been saved by giving them oxygen on time. Delhi should get its quota of oxygen. Can’t see our people dying like this. Delhi needs 976 tonnes of oxygen, but it received only 312 tonnes yesterday. How will Delhi breathe in such a less amount of oxygen?" his tweet in Hindi said.
Other hospitals in the city also sent out messages about oxygen shortage on Saturday. Sir Ganga Ram Hospital had last week reported the death of 25 critically ill patients, as the administration struggled with oxygen supplies.