Doctors said either there should be designated refilling stations for hospitals or they would have to halt admissions.
NEW DELHI: Hospital administrators haven’t been able to breathe easy these past few days and it is unlikely they will do so soon. Oxygen supply is erratic and uncertain. On Monday, the Institute of Brain and Spine in Lajpat Nagar had only an hour’s oxygen supply and around 11am asked the patients to shift somewhere else. At least six other small hospitals sent out distress calls either online or through the media.
Doctors said either there should be designated refilling stations for hospitals or they would have to halt admissions. “We are supposed to save lives, not be engaged forever in searching for oxygen. Who will care for the patients when our focus is on finding oxygen?” said a doctor from one of the seven hospitals who flirted with disaster on Monday.
Hospitals in the country are struggling to cope with shortages of beds and oxygen supplies some say they only have a few hours of oxygen supply left. Crematoriums are also starting to melt from operating for so long.
Prashant Kanojia, member of the Rashtriya Lok Dal party in India and a former journalist, on Sunday tweeted with the hashtag #CovidSOS that a hospital in Meerut, north India, needed urgent oxygen supplies.
In response to a thread by journalist Swati Chaturvedi to amplify people s requests for help, one Twitter user said her relative was a critical cancer patient who couldn t be transferred to ICU because there were no beds available.
Still on beg and borrow mode: Delhi hospitals struggle for oxygen continues newindianexpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newindianexpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shortage of beds, oxygen, cremation slots leaves Capital in a shambles
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Relatives, friends, attendants of COVID-19 patients narrate ordeal, helplessness
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Patients and relatives outside Lok Nayak Hospital in New Delhi on Monday.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Relatives, friends, attendants of COVID-19 patients narrate ordeal, helplessness
With the issue of shortage of beds continuing in the national capital, search for beds and then long wait at hospitals have proved to be agonising for attendants and relatives of patients, they rued.
For Veena, one such attendant waiting outside the emergency wing of Moolchand Hospital, battling helplessness and hoping for a miracle is all that goes on throughout the day, she said.