‘Provide Oxygen for non-Covid patients’

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 11

Private nursing homes in the UT have asked the Director, Health Services, to provide them sufficient supply of oxygen cylinders to cater to non-Covid patients.

In a letter to the official, the nursing home representatives stated that they were facing oxygen crisis. “There are around 25 centres with a total daily requirement of around 100 cylinders. We have been sanctioned only 20 cylinders and asked to distribute among ourselves,” read the letter.

“Some of us are running NICU/paediatric ICUs. We have already stopped elective procedures and using oxygen very judiciously. We request you to intervene so that we can avoid any critical situation. Otherwise, we will be forced to inform patients to shift to government institutions and refuse further admissions,” the letter read.

RS Bedi, former president of IMA, Chandigarh, said, “Oxygen requirement has to be calculated for both Covid and non-Covid private hospitals and allocated accordingly. At a given time, approximately 20 to 25 newborns are on ventilator at private hospitals in the city. They have to be catered to also.”

A UT official, on a condition of anonymity, said, “These hospitals are 100 per cent non-Covid. We tried to provide these nursing homes maximum oxygen possible from the limited resources.”

The UT Administration on Tuesday revised its daily quota for oxygen cylinders for private hospitals and mini Covid centres. Three new private hospitals have been included in the list of revised oxygen quota.

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