Oxygen crisis: PGIMS hospital in Rohtak stops admissions of new COVID-19 patients

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Rohtak: The PGIMS hospital in Rohtak has stopped admission of new COVID-19 patients till further orders, saying it is faced with a “shortage” of medical oxygen.

Medical Superintendent, Dr Pushpa Dahiya, said on Monday that nearly 330 COVID-19 patients are currently admitted to the Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, a tertiary care centre, “We have stopped the admission of new patients till further orders.

It was on Sunday evening that we sensed acute shortage of oxygen cylinders. We had to manage patients who were already admitted, most of them require high flow oxygen with some on ventilator support,” Dahiya told PTI over phone.

She said the hospital was facing issues in oxygen supplies from the plant in Hisar.

The hospital also gets liquid oxygen supply from a plant in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan, from where supplies are getting late in recent days after there has been a surge in demand everywhere with rising coronavirus cases.

“In this situation, if we keep on admitting new patients, where do we stand,” she asked.

She said PGIMS authorities are continuously in touch with the government on the issue.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Manoj Kumar said there was no shortage of oxygen.

The DC, however, told PTI over phone that he would look into the issue after he was told that PGIMS here has stopped admitting new COVID patients.

“I am not aware of this, I will look into it. But there is no oxygen shortage and supplies are being maintained,” he said.

On halting new admissions, Dahiya said, “In this situation, we cannot keep on taking patients. Ours is a tertiary care centre, most patients who report here require critical care as they are already very sick. They need high amount of oxygen therapy, if we are short of that, there is no way out. So, we have taken a decision till things are under control”.

Replying to a question, she said 120 doctors and 100 staff nurses of the institute had contracted coronavirus infection this month while a large number of healthcare workers too were down with the virus, though many had recovered now.

“There are challenges which we are facing as a result of this too, but we are managing things,” she said. Dahiya said management of bodies of patients who have died of COVID also has to be taken care of as there are government guidelines for this.

She said that on Monday morning itself there were bodies of 50 COVID patients at the institute which the hospital authorities in coordination with the civic authorities had to take care of.

Earlier on Sunday, four patients had died in a private hospital in Rewari allegedly due to a shortage of medical oxygen following which the district administration launched an investigation to ascertain the reason behind the deaths.

In another incident, the Gurugram district administration had also ordered a probe into the death of four patients in a private hospital after reports that they died due to alleged oxygen shortage in the facility.

The hospital authorities in Gurugram, however, had denied these reports and said those who died were critically ill. Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja slammed the M L Khattar government over the issue of oxygen shortage.

“Mr Chief Minister, there is an outcry in Haryana due to oxygen shortage. People are losing their lives. Horrific scenes are being witnessed everywhere. Supply of oxygen to hospitals in Haryana should be made without delay,” Selja said in a tweet.