Delhi's LNJP hospital, left with just 2 hrs of oxygen supply, receives refill

New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) Amid an acute oxygen crisis in the national capital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital here received a supply of the life-saving gas in a cryogenic tanker around 10 am on Sunday, officials said.

It came as a huge relief for the hospital which was running on its backup stock of oxygen.

"We had exhausted our oxygen stock and were using the backup which would have lasted for two hours only," said LNJP Hospital's Medical Director Dr Suresh Kumar.

AAP MLA Raghav Chaddha, who is also the chairman of LNJP Hospital's Rogi Kalyan Samiti, had earlier tweeted about the cryogenic tanker on its way to refill oxygen stock in the hospital.

"Within the next 30 minutes, LNJP will receive liquid oxygen supply via cryogenic tanker. The tanker is on its way," he tweeted around 9.55 am on Sunday.

Chaddha had also helped Sir Ganga Ram Hospital get one metric tonne of oxygen around 12.20 am. The hospital has also received five metric tonnes of oxygen in the early hours of Sunday.

The Delhi High Court on Saturday asked the Centre and the Delhi government to coordinate on the issue of making medical oxygen available to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, observing that citizens cannot be left to die.

The court also made it clear that the efforts which Delhi government has to make in this regard cannot be trivialised and they should not leave it entirely to the central government.

While some hospitals have managed to make short-term arrangements, there is no immediate end to the crisis in sight.  The situation is grim for hospitals like Penatamed in Model Town that had oxygen supply for only one hour around 9:45 am.

"We at Pentamed Hospital have oxygen supply left for one hour only. There are around 50 patients and most of them are on oxygen support," said the hospital management.  Delhi recorded the highest single-day rise in its COVID-19 deaths with 357 more people succumbing to the viral disease on Saturday as well as over 24,000 fresh cases.

The city has reported nearly 2,500 deaths due to the deadly virus in a 12-day period. PTI MG/GVS NSD