The shortage of critical care has again resulted in Maharashtra deaths, as seven COVID-19 patients lost their lives in the last two days due to a shortage of oxygen supply.
According to the reports, four COVID-19 patients have lost their lives in Nagpur and three more in Dhule in Maharashtra due to a shortage in Oxygen supply. A medical emergency situation has risen in Maharashtra due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state, and the hospitals are now finding it tough to manage the crisis due to the shortage in supply of critical supplies.
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The hospitals in Nagpur are in desperate need of critical supplies, especially medical oxygen, as the demand has increased five-fold due to a surge in critical patients.
Though District collector Ravindra Thakare has started a dedicated line for Oxygen related requests from hospitals, hospitals are facing a shortage of Oxygen, resulting in doctors’ discharging patients. On March 25, the doctors discharged all the COVID-19 patients in a 30-bed hospital in North Nagpur, 11 of them in critical condition, after its oxygen stock exhausted. Reportedly, health authorities allegedly failed to replenish the supplies.
Since then, four of the critical patients have passed away – one of them at the hospital. The hospital said the 74-year-old deceased was on oxygen support till she was in admission. The remaining three people died at nearby government and private hospitals.
Following the death of three patients, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has issued a show-cause notice to the hospital and initiated an inquiry. The other twenty patients have been shifted to other hospitals.
Hospitals ask relatives to take their patients back
The scare has aggravated now after authorities at a 100-bed hospital in West Nagpur have asked relatives of all patients to get discharged and find other hospitals. However, later that night, the district health officials rushed 40 jumbo cylinders to the Nagpur hospital.
As the health crisis continues to cause deaths, District Minister Nitin Raut said the divisional commissioner has been asked to take stock of the production and the supply. “We have the local production capacity, but since cylinders are also being supplied to places outside the district, this issue is coming up. We may request the state health department to allocate extra stock for Nagpur,” he said.
The nodal officer said the demand for Oxygen has shot up five-fold from 19-20 metric tonne per day to 100 metric tonnes on Saturday. “The supply is smooth. The shortage-like situation is because more oxygen is needed. We need at least 5 to 10 tonne more to maintain a buffer. It will be increased as every day the demand is rising,” he said.
The medical officer said that they had enhanced Nagpur district’s own production in the last few weeks. “By Sunday morning, 600 empty jumbo cylinders from Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Gondia and Amravati will arrive. Our manufacturers need them to fill additional stock. Another 700 to 800 cylinders would be requisitioned from GMCH, which has two big tanks of liquid oxygen,” he said.
In addition to Nagpur, three COVID-19 patients have died due to lack of oxygen at Anjana Heart Hospital in Dhule city, taking the death toll due to oxygen supply to seven.
Maharashtra remains the most-affected state in the country, with nearly 27,13,875 cases have been reported from the state with more than 3,25,901 active cases. The state has reported 54,181 Covid-19 deaths.
On Sunday, nearly 40,000 cases were reported in Maharashtra and 108 people died due to the Chinese pandemic in the last 24 hours.
