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Pimpri’s smaller private hospitals in ‘panic mode’ after oxygen shortage, PCMC says steps taken to ensure cylinder supply

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Smita Zagade said at least 25 smaller private hospitals were in "panic mode" after their oxygen stock had exhausted.

Pimpri’s smaller private hospitals in ‘panic mode’ after oxygen shortage, PCMC says steps taken to ensure cylinder supplyThe Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday said the problem of oxygen shortage had eased late last evening and all steps were being taken to meet the demand. (File)

A day after PCMC-run Jumbo Covid Hospital as well as smaller private hospitals faced an oxygen shortage, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation on Wednesday said the problem had eased late last evening and all steps were being taken to meet the demand.

“On Tuesday, there was oxygen shortage felt by at least 25 smaller private hospitals. By evening, the problem had eased as we made some oxygen cylinders available to them,” Deputy Municipal Commissioner Smita Zagade told The Indian Express Wednesday morning.

Zagade said at least 25 smaller private hospitals were in “panic mode” after their oxygen stock had exhausted. “We got several calls from smaller hospitals handling COVID patients seeking help for oxygen cylinders. We provided at least 50 pending oxygen cylinders to these hospitals from YCM hospital. Besides, we also requisitioned some cylinders from a private manufacturer,” she said.

As for the 816-bed Jumbo COVID Hospital, Zagade said, “Since an emergency situation had arisen, PCMC commissioner, divisional commissioner and FDA joint commissioner worked till late night to ensure adequate stock of oxygen to the hospital. They managed to get the supply from the manufacturers located in Pune and outside.”

Zagade said all efforts are underway to streamline the supply of oxygen to private hospitals as well as civic hospitals. “Bigger private hospitals like Aditya Birla or Lokmanya hospitals don’t face the shortage problem as they have their own oxygen tanks to store the oxygen. The smaller hospitals who have to refill their oxygen cylinders are facing the problem. But we are doing our best to ensure that they don’t face any shortage,” she said.

Dr Kiran Thorat, who runs the Care Lifeline hospital in Kalewadi area, told this paper last evening that if he did not get oxygen cylinders in next two-three hours, at least two COVID patients who are on oxygen support might die. On Wednesday, Thorat said, “Since it was an emergency situation, I myself rushed in a tempo to a Chakan manufacturer and managed to get 20 cylinders. There was no option left as I could not have waited for PCMC to act…Any delay could have proved fatal for the patients,” he said. There are nine patients on oxygen support and five on ventilator in the hospital.

In PCMC-run Jijamata hospital too, oxygen shortage created a scare on Tuesday. “We get 13-14 cylinders a day. But on Tuesday morning, we did not receive any cylinders. However, by evening we managed to get 10 cylinders. We hope to get some more today,” said Dr B Hodgar of Jijamata hospital.

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Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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