In the wake of a rapid surge in Covid cases, hospitals across Bengaluru are experiencing an acute shortage of oxygen supply, reported the Indian Express.
A total of 97,897 cases were reported from Bengaluru on Sunday. Due to this exponential rise in cases, several hospitals in the city began running out of oxygen as the supply chain was severely hit.
Talking to Indian Express, the president of Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Associations, Dr. Prasanna H M revealed that due to shortage of oxygen supply, he himself had to depend on the black market to procure an adequate supply of oxygen for patients at Pristine Hospital overnight on Saturday.
Deliberating on the issue, Dr. Prasanna said he had approached the drug controller on Saturday with a list of 56 hospitals mostly in Bangalore that reported a shortage of oxygen after their supplier informed that he had run out of stock and could only provide one in place of four cylinders.
Even though the drug control board worker overnight to get supply back on track, the hospital was compelled to pay thrice the normal amount to get oxygen from other vendors in the face of a shortage, explained the doctor.
Dr. Prasanna further went on to say that the situation is not as dire as for the big hospitals which have their own liquid oxygen tanks helping them with direct oxygen supply. However, if their manufacturers also run out of oxygen supply, this might create scarcity in the big hospitals as well.
A doctor at a hospital located in the BBMP South zone also said that there is an immediate need to streamline oxygen supply and availability of Remdesivir injection.
The Karnataka government on Sunday opened a dedicated war room in Bengaluru to ensure the timely supply of oxygen for medical purposes. A circular issued by the Drugs Control Department mentioned that the war room would operate out of the annex building situated on Palace Road in Bengaluru and will help in monitoring the need and use of oxygen in hospitals, including at private facilities.
Meanwhile, Health and Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar took to Twitter on Sunday to appeal to people to not create panic and said that there are 7 medical oxygen production plants in Karnataka with a daily production capacity of 812 tonnes.
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