COVID: Hospitals in Delhi continue to face oxygen shortage even after emergency supply

Some hospitals in the national capital continued to grapple with severe shortage of medical oxygen on Friday even after receiving emergency supplies.

The Max Hospital-Saket on Friday morning sent out an SOS, saying it was left with “an hours oxygen supply” and over 700 patients admitted.

Two hours later, in a tweet, the hospital confirmed that it had received emergency supplies, which will “last another two hours”.

“SOS – Less than an hours Oxygen supplies at Max Smart Hospital & Max Hospital Saket. Awaiting promised fresh supplies from INOX since 1 am. @drharshvardhan @msisodia @PMOIndia @ArvindKejriwal @PiyushGoyal @SatyendarJain over 700 patients admitted, need immediate assistance,” the Max Hospital had tweeted at 7.43 am.

According to the South Delhi DCP, a vehicle carrying oxygen reached Max Smart around 9 am and another vehicle was enroute.

“Oxygen carrying vehicle has reached Max Smart. Another vehicle is enroute for Max East West. Senior Officers are monitoring the situation,” the police said on Twitter.

Around 9.30 am, the Max Healthcare said it was awaiting more supplies.

“Update: We have received emergency supplies at Max Saket and Max Smart which will last another 2 hours. We are still awaiting more supplies,” it said.

Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj also posted on Twitter at 4.20 pm that it was left with only one hour of oxygen and asked for help at the earliest.

“Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Vasant Kunj, with 160 #Covid19 patients, are left with another 1 hour of Oxygen cylinder stock. We have been waiting for the supply since last night, but no luck so far. Please help us at the earliest. @PMOIndia @ArvindKejriwal,” it said. A senior official of the Batra Hospital said the oxygen situation at their facility is extremely poor. “We got a refill around 1 pm. After that, some more refill came from the Delhi government, which is actually pulling us through. We have around 2.5 metric tonnes which can last up to 8:30 pm. Our primary supplier isnt responding to our calls.

We hope that the Delhi government bails us out:, the official said. Amid a serious oxygen crisis in the national capital, 25 “sickest” COVID-19 patients died at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here in the last 24 hours, officials said on Friday.

Sources said “low pressure oxygen” could be the likely cause for the deaths.

A central government source said the SGRH has “sufficient balance of oxygen and a tanker has reached the hospital, which will fill up the storage capacity”.

The tanker reached the hospital around 9.20 am. The stock can last up to five hours, depending on the consumption, an official at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said.

Sources at the Holy Family hospital also told

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