‘6 hospitals ran out of oxygen’

U.P. and Haryana governments trying to hoard oxygen: Sisodia

At least six private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients ran out of liquid medical oxygen on Thursday, as per the Delhi government, with several hospitals stating during the day that they had dangerously low levels of oxygen.

Many hospitals said that they arranged oxygen cylinders to manage the shortage, while some had to ask patients to shift to somewhere else.

Oxygen supply to hospitals in Delhi has been a problem for the past five days and the Delhi government has been blaming U.P. and Haryana governments for disrupting supply from private companies to Delhi.

The quota of oxygen for each State is decided by the Centre and in case of Delhi, it comes mostly from private oxygen plants in other States.

On Wednesday as well, several hospitals complained of dangerously low stocks of oxygen.

On Thursday, accusing the Haryana and U.P. governments of stalling the supply of oxygen to the Capital, Mr. Sisodia asked the Centre to deploy paramilitary personnel.

He said that Delhi was not getting the full quota of oxygen from a plant in Haryana as district officials were stopping trucks coming from Delhi for liquid medical oxygen.

Jungle raj

“In some time, without adequate oxygen supply, it may become difficult for Delhi hospitals to save lives of patients. We cannot keep on going on with this makeshift arrangement. It is my request to the Central government that even if you have to deploy paramilitary forces to ensure trucks from all States are replenishing oxygen without any hindrances from officials from other State governments, please do so. The way U.P. and Haryana governments are trying to monopolise and hoard oxygen, they have created a jungle raj”, which is very dangerous for everyone,” Mr. Sisodia said.

Later, in a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Mr. Sisodia said that six private hospitals have exhausted the stock of oxygen. The hospitals were Rathi Hospital, Santom Hospital, Saroj Super Speciality Hospital, Shanti Mukand Hospital, Tirath Ram Shah Hospital, and UK Nursing home, as per the letter.

Mr. Sisodia urged the Union Minister to intervene to save people’s lives and make sure that Delhi gets its quota of oxygen from other States.

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