PANAJI: Goa health minister
Vishwajit Rane made a startling announcement on Tuesday — that many Covid patients were dying due to oxygen supply problems in the early hours of every morning at
Goa Medical College, and that 26 had died between the same hours on Tuesday. The minister asked the Bombay high court to probe goings-on at GMC.
“Due to interrupted supply of oxygen, we feel that between 2am and 6am many people are dying in GMC. There is a need for an inquiry directly by the high court. There are petitions pending before it. The HC can appoint an expert committee to find out why deaths are happening between 2am and 6am and come out with a white paper," he said.
For days, TOI has reported a nightly drop of oxygen that often leaves patients gasping for breath. With no help forthcoming, doctors and nurses have been forced to improvise, sometimes hooking up to three patients to a single oxygen cylinder.
Rane’s statement came on a day that Goa recorded 75 Covid deaths, its highest-ever single-day tally, of which 48 patients died at GMC.
"On Monday, our requirement was about 1,200 cylinders, but we received 400 cylinders. The hospital has been facing a shortage of oxygen supply," the health minister said.
But chief minister
Pramod Sawant, who visited the GMC’s Covid wards earlier in the day, claimed there was enough oxygen and said the crisis was due to "mismanagement". "It looks like the oxygen doesn’t reach the patients. I will fix responsibility and streamline it," he said.
Sawant said that there was a delay in the allocation of cylinders. "To solve this problem, 600 oxygen cylinders (up from 400) will be made available to GMC, and we will make this available within 24 hours," he said. He said GMC requires 55 oxygen trolleys (each trolley provides 336 cubic litres of oxygen).
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"To fast-track the movement of oxygen trolleys, we have called experts and drivers on Wednesday to clear this bottleneck. This will stop oxygen pressure drops and the issue will be solved," he said.
Sawant, who met government doctors late Tuesday night, said the state government has also decided to install a 20MT liquid oxygen tank at GMC within eight days. "I will personally monitor the installation," Sawant said, even as he asked GMC to transfer 150 patients to the new super-specialty block to reduce the load on the state’s premier hospital.
"Once the oxygen tank is full and another 200 Covid patients are shifted to the super-specialty block, there will be less demand for oxygen at GMC," he said.
Earlier in the day, after visiting the Covid wards, Sawant blamed Scoop Industries, the company contracted by the government to supply oxygen to the state’s public hospitals, for the delay in supplying oxygen. "If he (Scoop Industries owner) is bound by a 10-year contract to supply oxygen, how can he now dump responsibility on the state government? I will not tolerate such acts which will lead to deaths of Covid patients due to oxygen shortage," Sawant said.
Oxygen supply through GMC’s central line has been erratic for weeks, putting the lives of patients who are on non-invasive ventilation, those with severe Covid pneumonia and those with acute respiratory distress, at risk. Among the slew of measures taken by the government last month for Covid management was the appointment of three
IAS officers as nodal officers to maintain the supply of medical oxygen to hospitals. "It is their responsibility to find out what the problem is and inform the CM about it. I will also talk to the CM to learn where the mismanagement is happening. As health minister, I want to know about it," Rane said. The health minister said the chief minister was "misinformed" but did not elaborate.
Sawant said there should be a ward-wise in-charge to look after oxygen supply to patients as nurses were unable to handle it.
"I have understood all the problems and I will come out with a 100% solution to the problem within one day," Sawant claimed.