Ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to hospitals: 13 Opposition parties tell Centre

Senior Opposition leaders have issued a joint statement, asking the Centre to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply to hospitals across the country. The 13 Opposition leaders have also asked that the Centre launch a mass free vaccination programme against Covid-19.  The statement comes in the wake of many SOS calls from horptials, and the death of around 12 patients on Saturday at Delhi’s Batra Hospital. The SOS calls flaggine shortage of Oxygen supply and stock from various hospitals in Delhi, were visible on social media on Sunday as well.

The Opposition leaders who have signed the the statement include former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M K Stalin, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI’s D Raja, Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, and  Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav.

They wrote, “We call upon the Central government to focus all attention in ensuring the uninterrupted flow of Oxygen supplies to all hospitals and health centres across the country. We call upon the Central government to immediately launch a free mass vaccination programme across the country. The budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for the vaccination programme must be utilised for this.”

Delhi’s hospitals have had to approach the High Court to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply. However, the government had, however, denied that there was any shortage and blamed logistics issues in transporting oxygen to places. Indian Express reported on Sunday that a day after 12 Covid patients, including a senior doctor, died after oxygen ran out at Batra Hospital the facility said it was still struggling for supplies and thus stopped new admissions. Other Delhi hospitals who do not have stable oxygen supplies include two children’s hospitals, Jaipur Golden Hospital, where  20 Covid patients died last week, Vimhans and Triton Hospital in South East Delhi, Akash Hospital in Dwarka, and Sitaram Bhartia Hospital and Rainbow Madhukar Hospital in South Delhi. According to IE, some of these hospitals received an emergency supply from the Delhi government, while others got their stocks at the last minute. A Delhi government official told the media that even temporary Covid facilities with 1,000 beds in the city have not been able to start operating due to the oxygen shortage. 

Supreme Court orders Centre to ensure oxygen supply to Delhi 

On Sunday, the Supreme Court passed an order asking the Centre to ensure that the shortage of the supply of oxygen to Delhi is rectified on or before May 3 midnight.  The SC bench ordered, “The Central Government shall, in collaboration with the states, prepare a buffer stock of oxygen for emergency purposes and decentralise the location of the emergency stocks. The emergency stocks shall be created within the next four days and are to be replenished on a day to day basis, in addition to the existing allocation of oxygen supply to the States.” According to a report in The Mint, the directions were passed in a suo motu case for ensuring essential supplies and services during the Covid-19 pandemic. The SC added that emergency stocks shall be created within the next four days and are to be replenished on a day-to-day basis, in addition to the existing allocation of oxygen supply to the states. The three-member apex court bench, comprising Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Ravindra Bhat also asked senior advocates Jaideep Gupta and Meenakshi Arora, appointed as amicus curiae, to collate and compile these suggestions submitted by various parties, added the news report. The next hearing is listed on May 10.

According to the news report, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre to formulate within two weeks a national policy on admissions to hospitals in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19 and said no patient shall be denied hospitalisation or essential drugs in any state for lack of local residential proof.

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