Facing oxygen shortage, Delhi’s Saroj hospital suspends patients admission, discharges old ones

Delhi's Saroj hospital's COVID-19 in-charge said, “We are closing the admissions because of an oxygen shortage. We are discharging the patients."

New Delhi: As several hospitals in the national capital have been flagging oxygen shortage, Delhi’s Saroj Super Speciality Hospital on Saturday (April 24) stated that they have stopped admitting new patients due to lack of oxygen supply.

Facing acute shortage of oxygen, the hospital, situated in Rohini, has also started discharging all old patients. 

“We are closing the admissions because of an oxygen shortage. We are discharging the patients," the COVID-19 in-charge of Saroj Hospital told ANI.

The in-charge informed that the hospital has 70 critical COVID-19 infected patients and need oxygen immediately. 

“We haven't received backup oxygen supply yet. We have 70 patients who are in critical condition and need oxygen. If we don't get oxygen supply there could be a big disaster. We have started discharging patients,” he added. 

On Friday, Saroj Super Speciality Hospital had filed a plea at the Delhi High Court seeking urgent directions to the Centre and Delhi government to facilitate an urgent critical oxygen supply to it.

"The supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen has been very erratic and irregular with only 4 - 6 hours supply being made by the Vendor, i.e. INOX, which also reaches the Hospital only when the Oxygen in the tank is at the brink," the petition read. 

Earlier, at least twenty critically ill patients died overnight at Jaipur Golden Hospital in Delhi due to oxygen crisis. 

Moolchand Hospital, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH), Batra Hospital and Jaipur Golden hospital put out SOS calls on Saturday morning and urged the government to arrange the oxygen supply at the earliest. 

(With inputs from ANI)