Torturous situation at Bengaluru hospitals as oxygen supplies are still short

Grieving relatives at the crematorium in Medi Agrahara, Bengaluru, on Tuesday. DH PHOTO/JANARDHAN B K

As the oxygen crisis finished its fourth day on Tuesday, Bengaluru’s glaring gaps in supply are no closer to being sorted out.

While the new oxygen war room, set up at the office of the additional drug controller, insisted that supplies of oxygen were being distributed effectively across the city, the ground realities presented a different picture.

“Oxygen supplies are coming in but they are nowhere enough to satisfy the massive demand which has sprung up in recent days,” said Shastry K S N, an additional general manager at Universal Air, which is of several manufacturers of liquid oxygen in the state. “Whereas hospitals required 10 cylinders per day, they now require over 100.”

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The problem is not a matter of production but demand, said the BBMP Chief Commissioner, Gaurav Gupta. “The present consumption in Bengaluru ranges between 150 and 200 metric tonnes per day. The supply is adequate to match it, but it is the problem of storage that prevents more oxygen from being distributed,” he said.

Nevertheless, the primary oxygen manufacturers in Ballari have committed to dispatching additional quantities of oxygen to various distributors and manufacturers, ranging from 25 to 30 metric tonnes per day.

Sources, however, said the scaling up had not yet happened. Distributors said their empty tankers were still waiting at Ballari, awaiting filling. Government sources said that JSW Steel was supplying about 110 metric tonnes of oxygen per day to Karnataka and had committed to supplying 300-400 tonnes by the end of April or May.

“It takes time to convert industrial grade oxygen to medical grade. Hence the delay,” a source said.

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This has meant a tortuous situation in the city’s private hospitals where hundreds of patients are being discharged or transferred elsewhere as the oxygen supplies of hospitals run out. At Mediscope Hospital at KG Halli, which has about 20 Covid-19 patients, several patients faced discharge because the hospital’s oxygen supplies were running out. “In the end, we borrowed several cylinders from other hospitals and kept the patients, hoping and praying that the tankers will come soon,” said the nodal officer for the hospital, Dr Tanveer Khan.

Several deaths were reported city-wide due to oxygen deprivations, including a 35-year-old techie who died on Monday night after the hospital, in which he had been admitted, similarly ran out of oxygen.

Asha Suryanarayan, a social worker and Lions member, said that the IT industry employee had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 10 and was undergoing oxygen therapy at a private hospital in Banashankari 2nd Stage.

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“On April 19, the hospital ran out of oxygen. Attempts to transfer him to other hospitals were not initially successful because none had any oxygen. Eventually, he was admitted to a hospital in Bommanahalli where he died at around 7.20 pm,” Asha said.

She added that entreaties to the BBMP authorities and the minister of health, Dr K Sudhakar, had resulted in no assistance. “I have always been a loyal BJP follower but now I am regretting voting for this government,” she said.