Karnataka to publish details of hospitals' oxygen supply daily

In the wake of the Chamarajanagar tragedy, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa chaired a meeting with oxygen manufacturers even as the government said on Monday that each district will publish details of the quantity supplied and distributed to hospitals everyday.

This came following the death of two dozen patients in Chamarajanagar allegedly for want of oxygen supply.

According to an order, all oxygen-refilling agencies in a district and the BBMP will from now on furnish details of oxygen to DCs and BBMP respectively. They will have to give a detailed account of how much oxygen they received from suppliers and how much was supplied to hospitals and other establishments. The DCs and the BBMP commissioner will have to put the information on the oxygen supply available in the public domain.

Also, the district officials will have to nominate a tahsildar-level official to camp at each refilling station to oversee the medical oxygen supply and to ensure that the supply to hospitals is smooth.

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The additional DCs and one special commissioner in BBMP will be the oxygen nodal officer and ensure that these rules are followed, an order in this regard stated.

As per procedure, the oxygen manufacturers supply medical oxygen to approved suppliers, who in turn supply it to authorised refillers in a district. These refillers then supply the oxygen to hospitals.

Meanwhile, in the CM's meeting with the medical oxygen industry representatives, several measures were proposed to ensure that the oxygen supply is faster and is used in an efficient manner. Reducing the time taken to refill the oxygen tankers, providing a green corridor for faster movement of oxygen tankers, directing the toll gates to avoid unnecessary delay, converting nitrogen and argon tankers available for supplying oxygen, and making use of services of LPG tanker drivers in case of emergency, were among the measures proposed.

The chief minister also directed the oxygen manufacturers and suppliers to resolve any issues in the supply chain by directly flagging them with the officials concerned.