Oxygen crisis

India hospitals are now grappling to get oxygen for COVID-19 patients. Over 20 patients have died in a renowned hospital in Delhi, due to lack of oxygen. Hospitals, cities, states are fighting for oxygen (“Indian hospitals plead for oxygen; submit national plan, SC tells Modi,” April 24, Gulf Today).

This is a horrendous collapse of the system. There was already a shortage of vaccine, beds, ventilators, ICU units, medicines. Many large and prestigious hospitals in major cities have oxygen stocks for a few hours only. Sometimes, minutes. The lives of patients, hang by a thread, until the arrival of a cylinder of oxygen. It is a shame. All usage of oxygen for industrial purposes should be suspended immediately. It should be modified and diverted to the hospitals. Somebody in the government has to take this decision.

The irony is that India is not short of oxygen. The estimate for medical demand for oxygen is 6,050 MT per day. The current production is 7,800MT per day. Industry has indicated that it can add 2,000 MT per day capacity quickly. So, it is not the availability, but haphazard allocations, distribution, logistics and crass politics that have created death-generating shortages of oxygen in hospitals in Delhi, Maharashtra Punjab, UP, etc. States like Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan have surplus oxygen.

Instead of using trucks and trains to transport oxygen, India should be flying the cylinders in aeroplanes and military aircraft. This shortage of oxygen should have been anticipated and provided for. The policy cells in the government, should be preparing various scenarios of COVID-19’s spread in the country and the galvanisation required.

If the politicians are unable to manage, due to lack of crisis management skills, then the Indian’s civil service officers, should be called in to take control and manage the disease. If they too fall short, then the management of the disease and allocation of resources should be left to the Indian army.

Rajendra Aneja — Mumbai, India