Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender on Tuesday said that there is no oxygen shortage in the state. Eatala was addressing the media in Hyderabad over COVID19 management in the state.
Eatala said the state has over 400 metric tons of oxygen when the present demand is 270 metric tons. Reiterating that there is no shortage of oxygen, the state Health Minister said oxygen was brought from Bellary, Odisha and other small industrial units in Telangana.
He added that District Collectors and District Health and Medical Officers (DHMOs) are bringing the issue to the government's notice when there is a shortfall of oxygen in the private hospitals due to "technical issues." He noted that there is a shortage of 500 oxygen beds in private hospitals as beds were occupied by patients from other states as well.
The Minister said there are 22 liquid oxygen tanks in the state at medical college hospitals and area/district hospitals with a capacity of 20 kl in each tanker.The Health Minister also said that the Union Government has given 5 oxygen machines under PM Care Funds.
One oxygen machine with 29 lakh kilo liters of capacity per day has been installed at Gandhi Hospital, another with 14.5 lakh kl capacity was installed at TIMS Gachibowli and the remaining three were installed at Khammam, Bhadrachalam and Karimnagar. Arrangements are being made to install 12 more machines at different hospitals to address the need of oxygen in the times of calamities, he said.
"Even if the number of patients increase in the coming days, we have a plan to procure oxygen.. before the pandemic our state was having oxygen supply for only 1400-1500 beds (in different modes) after COVID19 we have arranged oxygen connection in 10000 beds,” said the Health Minister.
Eatala said that Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad is one of the only facilities in the country to have 600 oxygen/ICU or ventilator beds. He added that 400 more beds in Gandhi Hospital will be given additional oxygen supply, and with this hospital’s total oxygen beds capacity goes to 1000 while in TIMS Gachibowli 400 oxygen beds will be added to their existing 800 beds. MGM Warangal will add 300 oxygen beds and NIMS Hyderabad will increase its oxygen beds capacity to 200. Other hospitals will also see their bed capacity ramped up, taking the state’s total oxygen bed count to 3010.