Nearly 15 critical Covid-19 patients have lost their lives due to acute shortage of oxygen in smaller hospitals of Gurugram during the last week.These hospitals regularly demand from the district administration through Twitter or other social media platforms to provide liquid oxygen to them.According to the hospital management, several of them have discharged all patients and shut down operations, claiming the administration and the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) have not paid attention to their repeated requests for liquid oxygen.Ashok Kathuria, Director of Kathuria hospital in Old Gurugram, said, "Due to shortage of oxygen four Covid-19 patients had died in the hospital. Now we have stopped admission of new Covid patients as we cannot risk someone's life and why should we face the families' anger without any mistake on our part."Park Group of hospitals tweeted on Sunday that liquid oxygen allocated to it in Gurugram was hijacked by some other hospital."More than 140 patients' lives are in danger," it tweeted.Later, the hospital tweeted that it has received less than one tonne of oxygen.
Meanwhile, the administration officials claimed that there was no shortage of liquid oxygen in Gurugram.Aryan Hospital located on Old Railway Road, Gurugram, tweeted that it has sought officials' intervention to provide oxygen at the hospital but to no avail.Bharat, Medical Superintendent, SPES hospital, said the hospital has stopped fresh admissions of Covid patients as they have not received a single oxygen cylinder. In the absence of continuous oxygen supply, we ask families of indoor patients to arrange for oxygen cylinders to continue their treatment."Without oxygen how can we run operations? Why should we face people's anger without any mistake on our part. The district management and the MCG are responsible for allocation of oxygen supply in Gurugram," said a senior doctor of a leading hospital requesting anonymity.Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar chaired a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, Sudhir Rajpal, Nodal officer for Covid management in Gurugram, and the MCG Commissioner late Sunday evening to discuss oxygen allocation for Gurugram hospitals. Khattar assured smooth oxygen supply to all hospitals in the district.