Pune oxygen crisis: As distress calls continue from pvt hospitals, PCMC steps in

PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakane said all the five PCMC hospitals are now getting adequate stock of oxygen daily, but some of the private hospitals are still facing the problem.

EVEN as the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation continues to get distress calls from private hospitals over shortage of oxygen for covid-19 patients, the civic administration on Saturday said all efforts are underway to streamline oxygen supply to all the hospitals in the industrial city.

“Already, the oxygen supply to civic hospitals has been streamlined…We are in the process of streamlining the supply to private hospitals,” Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Patil told this paper today.

The PCMC chief said in the last few days, he along with the district and FDA officials have been working overtime to ensure that hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad do not face medical oxygen shortage for COVID-19 patients. “The problem arose because demand for oxygen is more than the supply due to the rise in patients on oxygen support. We have been coordinating with the district administration and FDA officials to resolve the problem. We have succeeded in bringing things under control,” he said, adding that some PCMC officials will be constantly in touch with the district administration vis-a-vis the supply of oxygen to hospitals in the industrial city. Divisional Commissioner Saurabh Rao, District Collector Rajesh Patil and FDA joint commissioner S B Patil are helping the PCMC administration in getting adequate stock oxygen from various manufacturers and distributors.

The commissioner said civic officials have been told to inform well in advance about the requirement of medical oxygen by hospitals. “We are doing advance planning so that we can convey our requirements on a daily basis to the district and FDA administration,” he said. The PCMC has also set up an oxygen Monitoring Committee to ensure smooth supply of oxygen to all the hospitals. The committee is headed by Deputy Municipal Commissioner Smita Zagade.

PCMC Additional Municipal Commissioner Vikas Dhakane said all the five PCMC hospitals are now getting adequate stock of oxygen daily, but some of the private hospitals are still facing the problem. “We get at least 10-15 distress calls from private hospitals regarding the shortage of oxygen they are facing. We are providing them oxygen cylinders from the reserved stock pending with civic hospitals. Also, we are helping them procure oxygen from different sources,” he said.

Stating that the problem of oxygen supply to hospitals in Pimpri-Chinchwad has been sorted out to a great extent, Dhakane said, “We have also set up a 24 X 7 control in our War Room for private hospitals. We have also provided a helpline number. The control room will monitor oxygen supply and distribution.”

Dr Kiran Thorat of Care Lifeline, Kalewadi said,”We have been facing a serious problem of oxygen shortage for the last three-four days. Two of my patients were in danger of losing lives because of shortage of oxygen. But the problem has eased as PCMC provided us with seven cylinders yesterday. And we will be getting 16 more today.” Dr Thorat said PCMC stepping forward has come as a relief to private hospitals.

Meanwhile, the PCMC administration has appointed escort teams to keep watch on tankers providing oxygen cylinders. Civic officials said PCMC hospitals every day need 45-50 metric tonne oxygen for its five hospitals. ”

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