Short of oxygen supply, B'luru hospital shifts Covid patients

Bengaluru, Aug 18 (IANS) A Bengaluru hospital has shifted its patients including those who are Covid-19 positive, to other government and private hospitals after running short of oxygen supply, an official said on Tuesday.

"For damage control and on precautionary measures we plan to shift all oxygen dependent patients to various government and private hospitals," said an official from Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).

Incidentally, the hospital foresaw the shortage and anticipated that a low oxygen hypoxic crisis may occur on Monday.

"We have anticipated that a low oxygen volume hypoxic crisis may occur for oxygen dependent patients. Hence we have informed the government authorities about the situation," said the official.

Such a situation arose because of liquid oxygen shortage from the manufacturing company on Monday.

According to the official, KIMS hospital received the necessary support from the government and managed to save the lives of the patients.

However, the official did not disclose how many oxygen dependent patients have been shifted to other hospitals.

Recently, C. V. Raman Hospital in Indiranagar also suffered oxygen supply disruption and shifted 17 Covid patients to other patients around midnight.

Bengaluru is the epicentre of Coronavirus pandemic in the southern state, accounting for the highest number of deaths, 1,483, and cases.

By Monday, the city accounts for 91,864 cases, out of which 34,408 are active, adding 2,000 cases a day on average.