The supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) from Linde India, an industrial oxygen production facility at Ballari, was stalled on Friday, which led to a shortage in the supply of bulk medical oxygen to private hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Anantapur district.
Kumar Oxygen, a medical oxygen refilling unit in Anantapur, supplies 700 bulk cylinders (7.1 cu. m) a day only to private hospitals from its facility on the Kalyandurg Road.
Kumar Oxygen has a contract with Linde India to regularly supply 20 KL of LMO to its refilling plant in a 20 KL road tanker of its sister concern, Parvathi Agencies.
“Up to April 15, we received supplies three times in a week. Later, the supplies plummeted to 10 KL each time. On Friday, the supply completely stopped,” Anand Kumar, the unit owner, told The Hindu .
Plea to authorities
With the supplies suddenly stopping, the owners of private hospitals such as YSR Memorial Hospital, Pavani Hospital, Asha Hospital, Care and Cure Hospital, and others made a representation to Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy, District Collector Gandham Chandrudu, and the District Oxygen Monitoring Committee.
While Mr. Reddy told them that he would speak to the State COVID Command Control Centre Chairman K.S. Jawahar Reddy to ensure the supplies were not disrupted, the District Oxygen Monitoring Committee member R. Jagannath Singh said the committee tied up supplies to some of the hospitals from the Life Oxygen plant at Chakrayapet in Anantapur district.
“We will ensure supply of some oxygen bulk cylinders from the Vedic Steel Private Limited’s oxygen production unit, which has been revived this week after its closure for more than two years,” Mr. Singh added.
Meanwhile, the private hospitals, which are either partially or fully empanelled under Aarogyasri, have stopped admitting new patients needing oxygen support in view of the uncertainty in supplies.
