KAKINADA: Patients undergoing treatment in private hospitals are struggling for oxygen and relatives say the hospital managements are not providing oxygen even though they are charging heavily.
Private hospitals say they are facing a severe shortage of oxygen and are helpless. But, officials maintain there is no scarcity of oxygen and they are meeting the needs of hospitals as soon as the latter make indents. East Godavari District Collector D. Muralidhar Reddy said that oxygen was being supplied to the patients in need and that they have sufficient stocks in the district. When the hospitals seek oxygen, they have to hand over empty cylinders, but they are not doing that. Hospitals should fully utilise the stocks with them and not seek new replenishments without returning empty cylinders.
Joint Collector G Lakshmisha who is supervising the supplying oxygen to the hospitals said that there is a requirement of oxygen at 30-kilo litres per day in the district and that there 33.8 kilolitres are available in the district.
However, the official version is disputed by former MLA of Rajamahendravaram and YSRC city coordinator, Akula Satyanarayana, who is himself a medical doctor. He blamed it on the officials for not meeting the demand for oxygen in hospitals. He asked if there was no scarcity of the oxygen, the officials should release it to the open market as the Covid-19 situation is worsening by the day and oxygen demand was mounting. The officials should ensure enough reserve stocks at hospitals to meet any eventuality.
Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Association (APCLA) state president Muppalla Subba Rao said that at present the state, as well as the country, was in a health emergency and the Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy should shift focus from welfare schemes to containing the pandemic by sanctioning more funds. He said the government should make efforts to fully meet the spiralling oxygen demand in the state.
