BENGALURU: It is not just private and government hospitals and Covid Care Centres that are demanding oxygen, but also individuals who are stocking up cylinders at home. As per government records, the demand for oxygen on Friday was 1,240 MT, but the supply was 900 MT. Of the total demand, 30- 40 per cent was from private hospitals, while 20- 25 per cent was from individuals who wanted to stock oxygen at home.
“Some who want it at home are using it for certified medical purposes like for home nursing. But there are many others who are hoarding cylinders out of fear of stocks running out in the market. They don’t even know how to use an oxygen cylinder. We are worried now that there will be serious medical consequences. There is also no record of the individuals who have these cylinders at home and of what quantities. This is also contributing to the present shortage,” an official said.
The shortage is also because of the government order that states should not share their oxygen resources. “It has made matters worse. For example, even though Hosur is in Tamil Nadu, oxygen supplies used to come from there as it is close to Bengaluru. But now the supplies have stopped. Similarly, Belagavi used to get supplies from Kolhapur. The problem has aggravated because the supplier who had contracts with big hospitals is based in Palakkad and he has stopped supplies because of the cross-border issues.
These large hospitals too are dependent on the government for their supplies now,” the official explained.
As there is a big demand for ICUs and oxygenated beds, smaller hospitals too have admitted patients to HDU and ICU, not declaring their oxygen capacity. These hospitals too are in queue demanding cylinders of 40KL capacity.
The demand for oxygen has shot up in the last 10 days. Refillers are sitting idle because they do not have vehicles to get oxygen from manufacturing units. “I am a registered oxygen refiller with a licence. I am unable to get liquid oxygen from manufacturing units as they are asking me to get my vehicles, which I don’t have, while nodal officers are asking me to supply. How can I,” asked a refiller.
Another official said, “Karnataka should have learnt from Kerala. It studied the second wave and quickly converted all beds into oxygen beds and has over 93 oxygen tankers.”