The letter from the ministry was issued in response to the Maharashtra government’s order under the disaster management law that sought to ban the movement of oxygen out of the state. Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka It faced a shortage after Maharashtra stopped supply on September 7, increasing the proportion of oxygen production that will keep to itself from 50% to 80%.
Four patients were reported to have died in the Dewas district in MP due to oxygen shortages, which the government denied, but admitted there was a shortage. Four districts – Dewas, Jabalpur, Chhindwara and Damoh – faced oxygen shortages last week after Nagpur-based units suddenly stopped supply.
Punjab also placed restrictions on state manufacturers selling to other states, even as it approached Himachal, Uttarakhand and Haryana to increase its supplies. Similarly, there was a shortage in Agra as demand increased in Delhi and the city’s supplier depended on plants located in the Delhi region. Jhansi and the rest of Bundelkhand in UP were affected when there was an increase in demand in Indore and Bhopal in neighboring MP.
In KeralaAlthough 60% is supplied by a company located within the state, the remainder is by companies with units located in Tamil Nadu. However, so far there has been no shortage in the state.
In Karnataka, in mid-August, 13 of the 19 district hospitals did not have internal oxygen cylinders and 50 patients had to be transferred from a hospital in Bengaluru due to oxygen shortages. The state is still fighting. Demand has skyrocketed to 500 metric tons per day from just 100-150 metric tons before Covid, said Gaurav Gupta, chief secretary of the department of commerce and industry, who heads the committee to ensure oxygen supply. He said demand was being met by increased supply.
Along with shortages, many states are also experiencing an escalation in oxygen prices, although the maximum price per cubic meter of oxygen was set by the National Authority for the Prices of Pharmaceutical Products last year at 17 rupees. In Telangana, after the authorities started importing oxygen from the northern states, prices rose from Rs 10 per cubic meter to Rs 50 per cubic meter. In Andhra Pradesh, although prices have not increased much, private hospitals are charging much more than they used to charge for oxygen beds.
In Karnataka, the price depends on the type of contract with the manufacturer. For old contracts between manufacturing companies and hospitals, it costs Rs 13-18 per cubic meter, while for new contracts the cost is Rs 24-25 per cubic meter. For the spot contract during emergency supply, it costs Rs 40 per cubic meter. For private hospitals, the price rose from Rs 20 to Rs 22 to Rs 30 to Rs 35 and then to Rs 40 per cubic meter. Private hospitals had agreed to a charge of up to Rs 7,000 per day for government-referred Covid patients when they need high-flow nasal oxygen, but now the treatment cannot be delivered at this price, said Dr. Prasanna HM, director. manager of the Pristine Hospital in Bengaluru.
In Uttar Pradesh, officials confessed that the cost has tripled. The price of a small cylinder of oxygen, for example, has risen from Rs 130 to Rs 315-350. Some companies have doubled the amount of security taken for each small cylinder from roughly Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.
In Bihar, Gaurav Rai, a Covid-19 patient who started an oxygen bank after recovering, said that 10-liter oxygen cylinders that were sold for 8,500 rupees during the crisis were previously available for about 7,000 rupees. In Gujarat, too, the price of a liter of oxygen has risen from Rs 8.5 to Rs 28-35. In Odisha, the price of a cylinder has risen from Rs 6,500 in July to Rs 10,000 now. For cylinder filling (10 liters), the price has more than doubled from Rs 350 in July to Rs 900 these days. Smaller private hospitals are the hardest hit. Large corporate hospitals say there are no supply and pricing implications for them because they have annual contracts with suppliers.
Many hospitals in Mumbai complained of a shortage of supplies. “The real problem behind the shortage is the differences between providers and private hospitals in prices. Both parties have to resolve their disputes,” he said. Panvel City Municipal Corporation Deputy Commissioner Sanjay Shinde. Kharghar-based Polaris Hospital Manager Ashok kumar He said: “There is no regular supply. Our demand is for 25 to 30 7,000 liter cylinders a piece. But we get less than half.” Dr Hema Bindu from Satyam Hospital, Kalamboli, said: “Medical oxygen consumption for critically ill covid patients has increased multiple times in recent days. This has caused a mismatch between supply and demand. We are getting the supply with great difficulty “.
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