Acute medical oxygen shortage being reported in Maharashtra with deaths being attributed to it

According to reports, 10 deaths due to medical oxygen shortage are being reported from Nalasopara( Suburb of Mumbai). The fatalities all occurred in the ICU of Vinayaka Hospital. Relatives of the deceased blamed the shortage of oxygen and doctors’ irresponsibility for the loss of lives.

A huge crowd gathered at the hospital last evening to vent its fury. Some of the people gathered said that if they had been informed about the situation earlier, the victims could have been shifted to other facilities in Mumbai or other places.

Pinki Varma, the daughter of one of the victims, told reporters that her father was recovering well and was scheduled to get discharged yesterday.
“My father was corona-negative, but was put in the Covid ward,” Ms. Varma said. “Today, they called to inform us that there was some emergency. When we arrived, there was some crisis happening over oxygen and a huge crowd had gathered. From 3 pm to 5 pm, they made us wait without giving us any information.”

The police later arrived at the hospital to calm tempers down and disperse the mob. However it will be unfair to blame the hospital administration as they are already under huge pressure since March last year, its the duty of the government both the local and state to ensure there is enough availability of oxygen.

“Vinayaka Hospital is a tertiary care center of Vasai-Virar municipality…We get patients who are transferred from smaller hospitals and their conditions are usually already critical when they arrive here,” Dr. Shashi Kant of Vinayaka Hospital. “Since we are a big hospital in the area, we don’t deny patients. Because if we refuse to admit them where will they go?”

This lack of availability of oxygen is not a local incident at all as various other reports of shortage of oxygen cylinders are being reported from all across Maharashtra indicating a grave crisis and an administrative failure.

Patients were shifted from the newly inaugurated parking plaza field hospital in Thane to the global hospital due to a sudden decrease in the supply of oxygen. Nursing homes and other small hospitals are bearing the brunt the most, with them being forced to refer patients to other big hospitals. Videos circulated on social media show patients infected with the virus in the state’s Osmanabad are being given oxygen on wheelchairs.

On Friday patients of Galaxy hospital located at antop hill were shifted to KJ Somaiya hospital after it ran out of oxygen cylinders. The rates of oxygen cylinder and concentrators are reaching an astounding rate of 8000-10,000 making them hugely unaffordable.

CM Uddhav Thackeray will hold a meeting today to discuss the same and take corrective measures. One hopes that the situation is handled correctly at the earliest without any politicization from the opposition.