Joint Collector warns of penalties after a thorough review of supply and use
The District Oxygen Monitoring Committee has identified large-scale misuse of bottles by some private hospitals due to a mismatch in the number of patients treated in them and the consumption of bottles.
At an urgently convened meeting of representatives from oxygen supply agencies, node officers from privately designated COVID hospitals and private hospitals here on Saturday, joint collectors Nishant Kumar and A. Siri, who chair the oversight committee, said that District 15 has received KL of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) for all state hospitals with a capacity of 53 KL.
The oxygen supply agencies that the private hospitals get their supplies from have their own commercial agreements with various LMO manufacturers and any interruption in supply would have to be resolved by themselves.
“We will only intervene and help them if our intervention becomes indispensable, since we too have contacts with Linde and other manufacturers. But it is the central government that allocates oxygen, ”said Nishant Kumar.
The committee began the meeting by taking note of the news published in The Hindu on Saturday. It believed that many hospitals did not accept patients who cited oxygen starvation as an alibi.
“We will conduct a thorough review of oxygen supply and use and take severe penalties against hospital management and node officers if there is any disagreement,” said Nishant Kumar.
Earlier in the day, Parvathi agencies received 10 KL (half of their quota) for refilling at their Kumar Oxygen unit on Ballari Road in Anantapur, their owner Anand Kumar said The Hindu.
Ms. Siri said the county government had streamlined the admission process in hospitals and updated bed availability as early as possible.
The County Forestry Officer and Oxygen Monitoring Committee member reviewed the cases at Asha Hospital, Anand Ortho Hospital, Pavani Hospital and SV Hospital and found that “COVID-19 patients not being treated on Aarogyasri are in be abused on a large scale or use oxygen ”.
The node officials complained that the hospitals did not provide the required information and did not cooperate with them. Some representatives from the private hospitals later met with committee members individually to find out their side of the story.