Tirupati: Oxygen shortage looms over SVIMS Covid hospital

Tirupati: Sri Padmavati state Covid hospital in SVIMS is on the verge of oxygen shortage as Tamil Nadu government decided to cut the oxygen supplies to other states as the demand in that state has been increasing.

As of now 587 Covid patients are under treatment at this hospital out of which 90-95 per cent were on oxygen dependency. About 450 patients are in ICU and oxygen wards while 40 are on ventilators.

For the past 15 years, the hospital has been getting liquid medical oxygen from the Air Water company in Tamil Nadu. SVIMS has installed two 11 KL capacity tankers through which the oxygen is being supplied to the patients. Being the state Covid hospital, patients with serious illness are coming up to the hospital are in dire need of oxygen.

SVIMS Director Dr B Vengamma told The Hans India that as Tamil Nadu government has decided to reduce oxygen quota to other states, the contractor expressed his helplessness in supplying the 14 KL oxygen daily to the hospital hereafter. She soon took up the matter to the district collector and state Covid nodal officer requesting for alternate arrangements.

The Director also said that during the second wave, the oxygen dependency has increased by almost 3-4 times. Last year, they used to get 8 KL oxygen thrice in a week while now they were in need of 13 to 14 KL oxygen daily. The contractor has been supplying the medical oxygen from Tamil Nadu in two trips daily.

Now, he made it clear that they could not supply more than 8 KL medical oxygen due to restrictions imposed by the government there.

"As of now there was no problem. They thought that problem may arise yesterday but the contractor somehow managed to send the supply. The routine 8 KL supply was sent today morning and there will be no problem till tomorrow morning. The officials will see to resolve the issue in the meantime," she clarified.

To a question, she said that another 10 KL tanker is being installed but it requires some more permissions from explosives department. Even after installation, they have to find out the supplier, said Dr Vengamma.

However, District Collector M Hari Narayanan denied the oxygen shortage in SVIMS and said that they have been bringing oxygen tankers through green channel with the help of the police department.

He appealed to the people that there is no need for panic about shortage in oxygen supplies and denied the news reports. He said the oxygen storage levels, supplies and usage are being monitored regularly in every hospital and the state command control also focussed on the issue constantly.