A sharp rise in the number of active COVID-19 cases in the city has turned the spotlight on the availability of medical oxygen at hospitals.
While there is no shortage of liquid medical oxygen, some issues with the distribution process and shortage of empty oxygen cylinders is said to be the reason behind the non-availability of beds with oxygen supply at hospitals.
Some private hospitals say they are facing problems in the procurement of oxygen, which is partly due to the huge surge in patients requiring oxygen beds and the stocks, available with them, running out frequently.
“A private notified hospital, which has a sanctioned oxygen bed strength of 100, is being forced to admit nearly double that number of patients in view of the huge caseload. The hospital procures 100 cylinders and at the rate of consuming 10 cylinders an hour, their supply would run out in 10 hours. This is forcing some of the private notified hospitals to turn away patients requiring oxygen support,” sources said.
Ventilator beds allocated for COVID-19 patients, and the ICUs, are also full most of the time. The availability of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) for Visakhapatnam district, from what is produced at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and at a plant at Pharma City near Parawada, is around 160 metric tonnes, according to conservative estimates.
“Time plays a key factor in the distribution network. Timely delivery is essential to keep circulation of oxygen running. But in the present condition, the supply is delayed by 10 to 12 hours and that is upsetting flow of oxygen to the beds. We have limited storage capacity and it can be run round-the-clock if we have timely supply,” said the managing director of a private hospital.
The daily requirement of medical oxygen in the city is about 50 tonnes, but the production is several times higher than the demand, according to official sources. The total sanctioned oxygen beds in the district are: 456 in six ‘A’ category hospitals and 917 in 33 ‘B’ category hospitals; there are 175 ICU beds in the A- category hospitals and 384 ICU beds in B-category hospitals. There are 36 ventilators at the A-category hospitals and 137 ventilators in the B-category hospitals.
This apart, there are oxygen beds at government COVID hospitals like Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), King George Hospital (KGH) and the Government Hospital for Chest and Communicable Diseases (GHCCD).
Meanwhile, it is learnt that though a provision has been made for setting up of a total of 180 oxygen beds at Government ENT Hospital, Regional Eye Hospital and Rani Chandramani Devi (RCD) Hospital, they could not be operationalised so far, reportedly due to non-availability of oxygen cylinders.
