DDU Hospital to have over 200 oxygen cylinders soon

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Shimla, November 27

The Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital is ramping up its oxygen supply on a war footing. The hospital has already placed an order for additional 64 big cylinders and an order for another 100 will be placed soon. “We will have in excess of 200 big cylinders within a fortnight or so. Once we have that many cylinders, we will be comfortable even if there’s no supply for a day from Mandi,” said Dr Ramesh Chauhan, Medical Superintendent of DDU Hospital.

Incidentally, the DDU Hospital was making do with just 64 big cylinders and 235 small cylinders until a few days ago. The Tribune had highlighted the shortage of oxygen at the DDU Hospital and the Zonal Hospital, Dharamsala, a few days ago. “A day after the shortage of oxygen was reported at Dharamsala, we approved the purchase of 100 cylinders for the hospital and now there’s no problem in this regard,” said Secretary (Health) Amitabh Awasthi.

As for the DDU Hospital, the Secretary said that the hospital would have a back-up of 50 cylinders all the time to deal with the situation arising out of the late arrival of oxygen from Mandi. “Besides, we have told the hospital to use two vehicles instead of one for ferrying oxygen cylinders,” added Awasthi.

Dr Chauhan said that they could now take oxygen from the IGMC, too, in case of emergency. “Even today, we have brought 16 cylinders from the IGMC. Today, we have 95 patients on oxygen. With Covid cases increasing, the demand for oxygen is growing, so we are also increasing our capacity. The government has given us the go-ahead to take all steps to ensure adequate oxygen supply for the patients,” he added.

As for why the government had not been able to set up an oxygen plant in the last nine months at the DDU and other hospitals, Awasthi said that the Central Government would issue a centralised tender for setting up oxygen plants in varous hospitals of the country. “As many as six oxygen plants will be set up in Himachal, including at the DDU Hospital and Dharamsala, at a cost of Rs 8 crore,” he added.