Is Punjab Prepared for the Second Wave of COVID-19?
Image credit: The Tribune
Six patients -- of which five were suffering from COVID-19 -- died on Saturday morning at the Neelkanth Hospital in Amritsar allegedly due to a shortage of oxygen supply. All the six patients were on constant oxygen supply and were in a critical condition when admitted on Thursday.
The hospital authorities have blamed the administration for the incident and have accused them of prioritising government hospitals over private ones. "We have been sending appeals repeatedly to the state government. Hospitals where there are no Covid-19 patients have surplus oxygen supply. Over the last 48 hours, we have used all our resources. We have reached out for help to everybody we could. But if the government doesn't want to help, should private hospitals shut down? Where should we go?" asked Dr Sunil Devgan, Managing Director of Neelkanth Hospital, while speaking to reporters.
A probe has been launched into the matter to ascertain the reason behind the deaths. Speaking to NewsClick, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira said, “Prima facie it appears that the patients have died due to the lack of supply of oxygen. However, a probe is going on. We are expecting a report as early as possible.”
Addressing the accusation raised by the Managing Director of the hospital, Khaira said, “All the hospitals carry equal importance for us. The suppliers are common people. Those suppliers are seeing who is to be provided with what and how much of the stock is needed where. We are ensuring that the things are rationalised, it [resources] should not be black marketed, it should not go into industrial use.”
The incident has shed light on the lack of preparedness in Punjab for the second wave that has gripped India like never before. Following the incident that set alarm bells ringing in Punjab, CM Captain Amarinder Singh ordered suspension of industrial operations at iron and steel plants to divert oxygen for medical use, while also directing immediate establishment of state and district oxygen control rooms to tackle the shortage.
Six deaths due to the shortage of oxygen supply is the first ever incident recorded in Punjab while the national capital continues to witness scores of such cases on a daily basis.
“The major challenge we have is the regular supply of liquid oxygen. We have operationalised government medical colleges to purely deal with the COVID-19 crisis. We have a sufficient number of beds with us. We are trying to maintain the oxygen supply, checking it at regular intervals,” said Khaira who has been directed to initiate a probe into the six deaths due to the oxygen shortage in Amritsar.
As per the officials, Punjab generates 32 metric tonnes (MT) oxygen from Air Separation Units (ASUs) for medical usage per day and obtains 104 MT liquid medical oxygen from neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttarakhand. The demand for the oxygen supply is expected to increase to 250 MT in the coming days on account of a surge in the COVID-19 cases.
Notably, Punjab is not receiving a regular supply of liquid oxygen of 104 MT from the “Centre pool” as promised. On April 23, Punjab received 103 MT liquid oxygen while on April 22, it received an abysmally small amount of 68 MT. Speaking to NewsClick, Tanu Kashyap, Managing director, Punjab Health Care System Corporation, said, “We have hardly received the allocated oxygen supply of 104 MT. Our requirement has increased to 120 MT, but we are not even getting 104 MT as of now.”
According to Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, COVID-19 nodal officer, the hospitals are scrambling to meet their daily oxygen requirement. Bhaskar said, “We are currently running hand-to-mouth in terms of oxygen supply. We are somehow managing right now. We have urged the government to increase the oxygen supply by 20-25% in the coming days.”
Punjab is also witnessing an influx of patients from Haryana, Delhi, and Rajasthan. Bhaskar said, “As per our policy, we are not refusing any patient from other states. But that obviously increases the burden on our healthcare system and the government needs to take that into consideration.”
The suspension of industrial operations at iron and steel plants is expected to help fulfill the medical requirement of oxygen. As per the officials, 100 MT of oxygen supply consumed by these industrial operations will now be diverted to the hospitals, increasing the daily supply to 132 MT, excluding the oxygen imported from outside.
The second wave of COVID-19 that has held India in its grips has brought forth the fragility of the healthcare system in the country. India is the first ever country to have recorded over 3 lakh daily cases of the infection amid the pandemic.
Get the latest reports & analysis with people's perspective on Protests, movements & deep analytical videos, discussions of the current affairs in your Telegram app. Subscribe to NewsClick's Telegram channel & get Real-Time updates on stories, as they get published on our website.
