Set up oxygen storage points within 30 minutes from hospitals: Apollo MD

Apollo Hospitals Group Joint MD Sangita Reddy called for setting up emergency oxygen storage points within 30 minutes distance of all hospitals

Apollo Hospitals Group Joint MD Sangita Reddy on Wednesday called for setting up emergency oxygen storage points within 30 minutes distance of all hospitals, saying supply of the gas continues to be a challenge amid the devastating second wave of the pandemic.

"As #OxygenSupply continues to challenge #hospitals requesting #Govt to set up emergency #Oxygen storage points within 30 mins distance of all #hospitals...," Reddy said in a post on micro-blogging site Twitter.

These should be equipped with a minimum of 25 jumbo oxygen cylinders and six transportation vehicles with tracking systems installed to ensure on-time supply, she said, tagging the Prime Minister's Office and the health ministry, among others.

Many hospitals across various states are facing an oxygen shortage. In the national Capital, the overstretched health infrastructure is gasping for breath because of an acute shortage of medical oxygen in the city after serious COVID cases started flooding the hospitals.

Several hospitals had approached the Delhi High Court and made SOS pleas on social media, saying their oxygen supplies were running out.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed contempt proceedings initiated by the high court against central government officials for non-compliance with the direction to supply 700 MT of medical grade oxygen for COVID-19 patients in the national capital.

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah, however, said the apex court will not restrain the high court from monitoring the COVID-19 management related issues.

On Tuesday, India's largest manufacturer of industrial and medical gases INOX Air Products had said in the next couple of weeks there would be an adequate supply of oxygen across the nation with production capacity and transportation issues being sorted out.

The country's manufacturing capacity at present is 9,200 tonnes a day as against estimated consumption of 7,500 tonnes a day, INOX Air Products Director Siddharth Jain said.