senior officer said that SAST received a few complaints against these private hospitals based on which the health department issued them the notice asking them to share the details of all the patients and their bills. “We have given them three days to get back to us with the bills and if they fail to, we will take action against them.
02 hell
War room set up to organise
oxygen is of no use and smaller
hospitals are being forced to buy from the black market to treat their
patients, say doctors
The Covid War Room created a day ago to manage oxygen supply in the City has been of no use, say some private hospital doctors. With no help coming from the War Room’s helpline, doctors say they are left with no option but to organise oxygen supplies from the black market, paying as much as ten times the price of oxygen.
Many private hospitals have not received oxygen supplies for three days and have shifted most of their patients to other hospitals with oxygen facilities. Swastik Hospital owner, Dr Vijay Raghav Reddy shifted some of his ICU patients to bigger hospitals to meet their oxygen needs. He had to manage about 10 patients at his own hospital.
Universal Gas factory, an oxygen cylinder distribution centre at Peenya, in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
This continues to be a huge problem despite the State government claiming that oxygen is not in short supply
Although the State government has been claiming that there is no shortage of liquid medical oxygen, many hospitals continued to ask their admitted patients to shift to other facilities as they are running out of stock. Government helplines 108 and 1912 were flooded with calls seeking help.
Since Tuesday morning, the Emergency Response Team (ERT), a volunteer group, has been getting many calls from desperate families. ERT volunteers said they have got several calls from families of patients admitted in as many eight hospitals in various parts of the city on Tuesday, requesting help in finding oxygenated beds.