A private hospital in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram faced a shortage of oxygen on May 12, but the requirement was met within minutes of informing Kerala government's COVID-19 oxygen war room.
SUT Royal Hospital, located in Ulloor in the city, on average admits 10 COVID-19 patients a day. The hospital requires 30-35 cylinders of oxygen per day and this is supplied by a private agency.
"On May 12 at 11 am, we realised that the oxygen stock (the cylinders available) will be over soon. We then informed the war room," the oxygen supervisor of the hospital told TNM.
The oxygen war rooms have been set up in all districts and are attached to COVID-19 control rooms. The war rooms have been set up to cater to the oxygen requirement of hospitals, and function under the Kerala Disaster Management Authority.
"We received five cylinders within 10 minutes of informing the war room. Ten more were sent later and we were told that more cylinders will be reaching today itself," the oxygen supervisor said.
On May 10, four patients from KIMS Sunrise Hospital, Kasaragod, were shifted to a private hospital in the neighbouring district of Kozhikode following oxygen shortage.
"The use of oxygen is monitored by a centralised system in the hospital, and on a daily basis, an average of 10 to 12 COVID-19 patients have been getting admitted in the second wave of the pandemic. We used to get the supply from an agency and this time, we thought that they may not have sufficient stock and we informed the COVID-19 war rooms. Soon the war room arranged the cylinders through the agency," Chithra, Public Relations Officer of the hospital, told TNM.
On May 10, another private hospital in the city, Pattom SUT Hospital, faced an unexpected shortage of oxygen. In this instance too, immediate assistance was given from the COVID-19 war room. At that time, there were eight patients on the ventilator and 57 other patients who required oxygen beds.