Karnataka opens war room for oxygen supply to hospitals


Bengaluru, Apr 18 (IANS): Amid the pandemic's second wave and reported shortage of beds and drugs, Karnataka on Sunday set up a war room to ensure supply of medical oxygen to hospitals for treating Covid patients, especially in Bengaluru.

"A dedicated war room has been set up at the office of the state Drug Controller here to facilitate availability of medical oxygen in both state-run and private hospitals," Health Minister K. Sudhakar told reporters here.

The war room comes up following complaints of oxygen shortage in hospitals in the capital, which recorded 11,404 new cases on Saturday and 87,724 active cases.

Karnataka registered a whopping 17,489 positive cases on Friday, taking the state's Covid tally to 11,41,998, including 1,19,160 active cases.

Out of 80 deaths, 43 were from Bengaluru on Saturday, taking the state's toll to 13,270 and the city's toll to 5,063.

Of the 589 Covid patients in ICUs, 124 are in Bengaluru hospitals, followed by 109 in Kalaburagi, 45 in Kolar, 40 in Mysuru, 29 in Dharwad, 24 in Bidar and 23 each in Davangere and Hassan.

"We will supply jumbo cylinders to private hospitals, which do not have liquid oxygen tanks, from state-run hospitals to overcome the shortage and meet the demand," said Sudhakar, a medical doctor by profession.

Though about 800 tonnes of oxygen is produced by four bottling plants across the state, demand for the gas has been exceeding supply due to surge in cases and despite the Centre rushing 300 tonnes to the state recently.

"We have urged the Centre to supply 7,500 jumbo oxygen cylinders to meet the demand in the state, as cases continue to spike daily," said Sudhakar.

The war room has been set up a day after Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (Phana) wrote to Sudhakar on the acute shortage of oxygen in their hospitals and nursing homes to treat Covid patients.

"Many private hospitals, which have been ordered to reserve 50 per cent of their beds for Covid patients are facing oxygen shortage and if the situation persists, they will be out of stock soon," said Prakriya Hospital chief executive Srinivas Chirukuri in a statement here.

As more patients are reporting to hospitals with low saturation, there is a sudden increase for oxygen supply.

"As the number of patients infected with coronavirus rises, so will the need for ICU beds. There is scarcity of ICU beds and ICU resources like oxygen and ICU trained nurses," Rainbow Children's Hospital 's neonatologist and pediatrician M.S. Sreedhara said.

 

 

  

Top Stories

Comment on this article

  • RJS, Mangalore

    Mon, Apr 19 2021

    Public statements from office cabins don’t go with ground realities. Stop fooling at least on this subject when people are dying because of no beds, oxygen and hospital care.

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Gurka, mangaluru

    Mon, Apr 19 2021

    This guy only releasing the statements written by his secretaries ! he honestly doesnt have any concrete plan for the CORONA vaccine or the Hospital arrangements !! at least GOVT hospital ! only fake statements to satisfy the people like MODIJI said ACHHE DIN AYENGE or 15 LAKs Mufth main bank account main ayenghe !! GATTAR GAS MAIN CHAI BANAYENGHE PAKODE BECHEKE EMPLOYMENT BANAYENGHE

    DisAgree [1] Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Mon, Apr 19 2021

    Start growing Plants inside the Hospital & Trees outside the Hospital ...

    DisAgree [1] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • Thomas, Mangalore

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    Minister Sudhakar should have had the foresight to arrange for the oxygen needs of the state , before it got this bad. There were many months to prepare for the current situation, which everyone knew was bound to happen sooner than later. Unfortunate. General public will end up paying for the lost opportunity , with their lives .

    DisAgree Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Sameer, Riyadh

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    To Sameer, Mumbai, It is indeed the responsibility of the government to ensure that the guidelines are followed. A total failure of the government in ensuring enough hospitals, bedsn ambulances, drugs and vaccines. This government has time to ensure Modis photo in the vaccine certificate, but did not have enough brains to understand and preparw ground for the next wave. This government is only speeches. Trust me..what we are seeing is just a trailer. Worst is yet to come. You will see bodies on the streets. It has already begun in UP. Now the government is in talks of ramping up oxygen production. So whoever wants oxygen needs to stay alive o his own. On one side people are dying without services and this government is giving tag lines 'teeka utsav'. Now today Dr.Harshvardhan came up with a new tagline...'oxygen express'. By the time this express reacges, the patient will expire. The government is running this country as if they are running a grocery store. Incapable and arrogant government wrapped in a bundle of lies.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [10] Reply Report Abuse

  • Veer, Nagpur

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    War room for oxygen but no ICU beds to give oxygen to patients. This is really a war on patients.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [16] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sameer, Mumbai

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    You talk as if you have visited every hospital and know the exact count of beds available. You can't always blame any government for the foolishness of people. Wearing masks and washing hands was one of the asks for stopping coronavirus but people have neglected it totally. However people like you will only ask government to fix everything. Do you expect BSY or UT to run behind people to make them wear a mask for their own safety?

    DisAgree [18] Agree [15] Reply Report Abuse

  • Daniel, Mangalore

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    Sameer you stole my words. Instead of finding fault in govt these should correct their own backyard

    DisAgree [7] Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sp, Mangalore

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    Sameer, when the government holds election rallies, it's not the people's fault. The govt is only bothered about winning elections, not about people.

    DisAgree [2] Agree [17] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sameer, Mumbai

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    You talk as if you have visited every hospital and know the exact count of beds available. You can't always blame any government for the foolishness of people. Wearing masks and washing hands was one of the asks for stopping coronavirus but people have neglected it totally. However people like you will only ask government to fix everything. Do you expect BSY or UT to run behind people to make them wear a mask for their own safety?

    DisAgree [13] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • Sameer, Mumbai

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    You talk as if you have visited every hospital and know the exact count of beds available. You can't always blame any government for the foolishness of people. Wearing masks and washing hands was one of the asks for stopping coronavirus but people have neglected it totally. However people like you will only ask government to fix everything. Do you expect BSY or UT to run behind people to make them wear a mask for their own safety?

    DisAgree [9] Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Sameer, Mumbai

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    You talk as if you have visited every hospital and know the exact count of beds available. You can't always blame any government for the foolishness of people. Wearing masks and washing hands was one of the asks for stopping coronavirus but people have neglected it totally. However people like you will only ask government to fix everything. Do you expect BSY or UT to run behind people to make them wear a mask for their own safety?

    DisAgree [9] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Veer, Nagpur

    Sun, Apr 18 2021

    First keep number of ICU beds ready equal to number of people gathered for Kumbha Mela and people went for election campaigning and rallies and people stood in line more than one day of voting days. All this is done at the behest of BJP and should pay for it.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse


Leave a Comment

Title: Karnataka opens war room for oxygen supply to hospitals



You have 2000 characters left.

Disclaimer:

Please write your correct name and email address. Kindly do not post any personal, abusive, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, discriminatory or unlawful or similar comments. Daijiworld.com will not be responsible for any defamatory message posted under this article.

Please note that sending false messages to insult, defame, intimidate, mislead or deceive people or to intentionally cause public disorder is punishable under law. It is obligatory on Daijiworld to provide the IP address and other details of senders of such comments, to the authority concerned upon request.

Hence, sending offensive comments using daijiworld will be purely at your own risk, and in no way will Daijiworld.com be held responsible.