Patna hospitals face acute shortage of medical oxygen

Hospitals in Bihar have been reporting a shortage of oxygen amid an increase in demand for it with a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Patna: Amid a surge of Covid-19 case counts across the country, hospitals in Bihar have been reporting a shortage of medical oxygen.

A majority of hospitals in the state capital and other places are facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen cylinders. Following the shortage of medical oxygen, many hospitals have even put up boards of 'NO ENTRY'.

With more patients requiring oxygen support, the demand for liquid oxygen has doubled in the past couple of weeks and the shortage of life-saving gas is forcing patients to shift to other hospitals. However, most private hospitals are not able to admit critically ill patients due to the acute shortage of oxygen.

Meanwhile, Patna District Magistrate Chandra Shekhar Singh has ordered major air products suppliers to supply medical oxygen on a daily basis.

"We have asked the health department and major air products suppliers about the urgent need for oxygen cylinders. It has been directed to set up a cell to provide oxygen cylinders as per requirement in hospitals. Hospitals will receive oxygen cylinders as per their daily requirement," said Singh.

"90% of hospitals in Patna are facing an acute shortage of oxygen supply. And due to a lack of chemicals, we are not able to supply oxygen to the private hospitals. The first priority of us is to supply oxygen in government hospitals," said, Vinod, Manager, Usha Air Products Limited.

"The demand for oxygen cylinders has gone up by 10 times than before. We used to supply 50 to 60 cylinders every day. Now, we have to supply 180 to 200 cylinders daily," he said.

Notably, as Covid cases rise in Bihar and ICU beds in state government hospitals are fully occupied and as many as 14 private hospitals in Patna have been asked to start treating Covid patients.

Over a dozen private hospitals are already treating Covid patients.