HYDERABAD: The Central government, on Sunday, asked seven States, including Telangana, to ensure there is a 100% oxygen supply in all Covid-19 hospitals. These States also need to ensure that a green channel be provided to tankers carrying oxygen cylinders, among other measures.Telangana’s media bulletin states that of the 42 Covid-19 hospitals in the State, only five do not have oxygen beds. However, senior doctors from various government hospitals disclosed that oxygen supply is quite unreliable and plagued with hiccups. Presently, 2,125 patients in the State are dependent on oxygen and 1,584 on ventilation.
A doctor from the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) told Express that they have lost patients on non-invasive ventilation like Cpap and By-pap because the central oxygen supply was not maintaining adequate pressure. “Usually, patients receiving this ventilation maintain an oxygen saturation above 90%. However, due to a shortage of oxygen supply, the saturation fell to as low as 60%-50%,” the doctor said. In Osmania General Hospital (OGH) too, the pipelines are unable to maintain a pressure of 70 psi due to the unscientific layout of pipes.
At hospitals in Khammam, a stock of just 200 cylinders is available at any given time. This has to be persistently replenished based on the requirements. The Centre’s advisory also noted that liquid oxygen tanks (LOTs) can be set up in hospitals with bulk requirement. These tanks store oxygen in liquid form making it easy to store larger quantities in one place.
In Telangana, only Gandhi, RIMS Adilabad, NIMS, OGH and Nizamabad hospitals have LOTs, which were installed only a few months ago. Most other hospitals, including Khammam, Karimnagar, TIMS, Nalgonda hospitals lack these. All the said hospitals are seeing a massive rush as the districts they are in are seeing high caseloads.
“Liquid oxygen is imperative. Unless it is installed, the hospitals will have to rely of oxygen cylinders which most often come from Hyderabad by road. Any vehicle breakdown, any small issue can cause a delay. Liquid oxygen tanks last 9-10 days and give room to expand beds, while cylinders last 2 days with the existing bed capacity,” said a senior official.
1,417 new Covid cases, 13 deaths in Telangana
From the 34,000-odd tests conducted on Sunday, Telangana recorded 1,471 cases and 13 deaths, taking the tally to 1,58,513 and toll to 974. The active case tally has slightly dropped to 30,523, of which 6,893 people are hospitalised. The State recorded at least 79 deaths in the last one week alone. The tally of recoveries stood at 1,27,007