The number of SOS calls received from hospitals in the city on Wednesday was 16 against the 48 calls received the previous day, AAP MLA Raghav Chadha said while releasing the oxygen bulletin. He said that the number of calls had come down as the city was delivered adequate oxygen by the Central government for the number of patients currently in need of oxygen.
“In these 16 hospitals from we received calls, there were 2,777 beds, which means there were 2,777 patients on oxygen-support beds. We facilitated this on time and made sure the shortage of oxygen was overcome,” Mr. Chadha said.
He added that 730 MT of oxygen led to a significant reduction in SOS calls from hospitals but pointed out that out of the 730 MT of oxygen, around 250 MT did not come from regular sources. “It came from an ad-hoc arrangement. I appeal to the Central government to turn this into a permanent one,” Mr. Chadha said.
The MLA further said: “The cumulative need of oxygen in Delhi, including private hospitals, government hospitals and small-scale nursing homes, when calculated, comes to 976 MT. This is the demand made by us for Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO). In the past, we have been receiving less than 50% of this demanded number, varying between 300-400 MT,” Mr. Chadha said.
Own source
The Capital has also been trying to set up its own source of oxygen and reduce dependence on suppliers from outside the State. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that he had inspected the installation of the new oxygen plant at Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra Hospital that had been imported from France. “I want to thank the French government for their support. We are setting up 48 such plants across Delhi to address the shortage of oxygen out of which 21 are being imported from France, and the rest are from India. Though these are small plants, I feel they will provide a lot of support to the entire system,” Mr. Kejriwal said.
The plant at Harishchandra Hospital has the capacity to fill 50-60 cylinders a day and if taken directly through the pipeline, 33 patients can be sustained on it for 24 hours.
