Oxygen shortage: Centre should have avoided insensitive reply

Patna: Relatives of COVID-19 patients wait to refill cylinders with medical oxygen at Sipara during the second wave of coronavirus pandemic in country, in Patna on Monday April 26, 2021.(Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui/IANS)

New Delhi: The Centre’s statement that there was no data from states to support the view that many deaths took place due to lack of oxygen during the peak of second Covid-19 wave across the country has resulted in political backlash, and obviously so. There is anger and outrage among the public too as is evident from even a cursory look at the social media platforms, and no one can deny that it is unjustified.

Any government with even a little wisdom would not venture into such a statement, even if the states had not reported deaths due to lack of oxygen, without qualifying it with the evidence it had from other sources.

Though technically the statement may be true as the states may not have reported shortage of oxygen as cause of death, but the Centre should have been more considerate about the people’s feelings and not givcn a bland technical reply as the issue has directly touched the raw nerve of the people who sufferred during the second wave.

Media reports, pleas in courts, and social media platforms are all flooded with desperate pleas and cries of victims and their relatives running from pillor to post to get oxygen cylinders for their patients gasping for breath. The pain of one such victim Prachi Awasthi is well reflected in a tweet, ” “I have been robbed, robbed of the chance to save my mother- and now robbed of her being even a statistic”.

One Raju Kumar tweetd, ”No death due to shortage of Oxygen row: It is not less than salt on the wound of families who lost their loved-ones due to #OxygenCrisis. Either it is state or Centre, it must not hurt people who voted them. Don’t reduce to this extend, end of the day, we all are human.”

One Amit Anand tweeted , ”The centre (BJP)and state (UP) governments are lying blatantly. My father was the unfortunate victim of #o2 shortage and sheer medical negligence. We were forced to sign a consent form for no oxygen availability and the authorities shrugged off any responsibility in the carnage.”

So, this written reply of Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar given in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that “Detailed guidelines for reporting of deaths have been issued by the Union Health Ministry to all states/UTs. Accordingly, all states/UTs report cases and deaths to the Union Health Ministry on a regular basis. However, no deaths due to lack of oxygen has been specifically reported by the states/UTs,” has come as a shocker for many people.

The Ministry, however, said there was “unprecedented surge” in demand of medical oxygen during the second wave of Covid-19.

The Minister’s reply has stirred a hornet’s nest. Several Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and P Chidambaram of the Congress, Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena and Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister and senior Aam Admi party leader Manish Sisodia and many others launched scathing attack on the Centre.

One can question the motive of their attack on political grounds, but the facts documented during the Covid, not by the Opposition parties but media and other agencies and authorities, the members of the civil society, the common man and the victims and the affected families cannot be brushed aside.

‘Dr D K Baluja, the medical superintendent of Delhi’s Jaipur Golden Hospital, where 21 people died on April 23 night, is on record having said to NDTV, “The Delhi government had written to us saying they will provide 3.6 metric tonnes of oxygen. Though we required more, we agreed to work with this. Last night, the tanker didn’t arrive. We made several calls to authorities and suppliers. Our stocks depleted. After a delay of seven hours, we got 1,000 litres of oxygen. But by then, patients in critical care were affected. This happened after midnight. Some deaths weren’t because of oxygen shortage but other complications too.”

Senior doctor of Batra Hospital SCL Gupta, in whose hospital 12 patients, died on May 1 has also clearly said that death due to shortage of oxygen did happen in Delhi. It might be because of lack of coordination between Centre-State that these deaths were not reported as they should be.
He said that not only in Delhi, but the whole country was reeling uner the shortage of oxygen. ” So no one can deny shortage of Oxygen.”

Even state authorities are on record having admitted deaths due to oxygen shortage. In Goa, at kest 83 people died between May 11 and 15, maximun 26 on first day. On May 11, as reported in the Times of India, Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said, ” Due to interrupted supply of oxygen we feel that between 2 am and 6 am many people are dying in Goa medical college and Hospital… One day the requirement was about 1200 cylinders but 400 cylinders were received.”

Many succumbed gasping for oxygen at home, many while on way to hospital, many in ambulances waiting for admission into hospitals, and many in hospitals, and all this is documented well in the media.

At so many places, authoritries had to crack down on hoarding and black marketing of oxygen cylinders, which is proof of the fact that the much needed life-saving gas was in short supply.

I personally know many cases in which people of small towns would pool their money to send vehicles to places as far way as 50 to 70 kms to get oxygen cylinders as the local hospitals did not have any.

It is true that ICMR guidelines on the website of National Centre For Disease Informatics And Research prohibit states from mentioning shortage of oxygen as cause of death, and it is also true, as the ruling BJP said, that many states, which were ruled by the Opposition parties were crying foul whereas their governments during the crisis had claimed no shortage of oxygen. One Prateek Bhansal also tweeted , ” Pretty shameless of you @RahulGandh. Your health ministers have also said the same in written affidavits to the centre. Why not sort that as well? #Covid #OxygenShortage ”.

However, this does not absolve the Centre of the responsibility of making an attempt to know the factual position by setting up a committee in the light of plethora of evidence other than state government reports

It would have been better for the Centre to admit to Parliament the shortage of oxygen faced during the peak of the pandemic, which led to deaths, and an spell out the steps it was taking to avoid such a situation from recurring in future, while expressing sympathy with those who sufferred the loss of their near and dear ones.

—–INDIA NEWS STREAM


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One Comment

  • Reply by health minister was shocking to many people across the country whose relatives died due to oxygen shortage. Though health is a state subject but its joint responsibility of state and centre and they cant absolve themselves. Fair survey will reveal the true figure of deaths due to oxygen shortage during peak of second wave. Hope state and centre will come clean on this.

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