Delhi’s LNJP Hospital receives oxygen refill; Pentamed seeks urgent supply

New Delhi, April 25

Amid an acute oxygen crisis in the national capital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital here received a supply of the life-saving gas in a cryogenic tanker around 10 am on Sunday, officials said.

It came as a huge relief for the hospital which was running on its backup stock of oxygen.

However, the situation is grim for hospitals like Pentamed in Model Town that had sent an SOS on Twitter around 11.30 am saying oxygen stock was left for 30 minutes only.

The hospital officials claimed they didn’t get any refill even after sending an SOS on oxygen shortage last night also. There are around 50 patients in the hospital and most of them are on oxygen support.

LNJP Hospital’s Medical Director Dr Suresh Kumar said, “We had exhausted our oxygen stock and were using the backup which would have lasted for two hours only.”   

AAP MLA Raghav Chaddha, who is also the chairman of LNJP Hospital’s Rogi Kalyan Samiti, had earlier tweeted about the cryogenic tanker on its way to refill oxygen stock in the hospital.

“Within the next 30 minutes, LNJP will receive liquid oxygen supply via cryogenic tanker. The tanker is on its way,” he tweeted around 9.55 am on Sunday.

Chaddha had also helped Sir Ganga Ram Hospital get one metric tonne of oxygen around 12.20 am. The hospital has also received five metric tonnes of oxygen in the early hours of Sunday.

The Delhi High Court on Saturday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to coordinate on the issue of making medical oxygen available to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, observing that citizens cannot be left to die.

The court also made it clear that the efforts which Delhi government has to make in this regard cannot be trivialised and they should not leave it entirely to the central government.

While some hospitals have managed to make short-term arrangements, there is no immediate end to the crisis in sight.                 

Metro Hospital, in Gurgaon’s Palam Vihar, which claims to be in its “last leg of medical oxygen”, had made an urgent appeal for help to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other ministers.

“INOX commitment to replenish liquid medical oxygen remain unfulfilled . Only 1.5 hours to go. Please help us urgently,” the hospital tweeted around 10.41 am tagging the Prime Minister Office, PM Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Haryana chief minister Mahonar Lal Khattar, Railway Minister PiyushGoyal, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij among others.

Delhi recorded the highest single-day rise in its COVID-19 deaths with 357 more people succumbing to the viral disease on Saturday as well as over 24,000 fresh cases.The city has reported nearly 2,500 deaths due to the deadly virus in a 12-day period. PTI

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