The absence of a required system to maintain high pressure supply of oxygen to Covid patients has led to unfortunate deaths in Goa Medical College hospital. When an oxygen tank was needed the hospital was having a trolley system that led to chaos, says the Goa state BJP that went into huddle after the state government failed to streamline the supply of oxygen.
For us the issue of the reported tiff between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane is over. It was not as reported by the media, Sadanand Tanavade, president of Goa BJP told FPJ.
The work on installation of a new oxygen tank with the capacity of 20,000 litres is almost over and many patients who need high pressure oxygen have also been shifted to new super speciality units, he said, refuting reports of lack of coordination between the CM and the health minister.
Everything is streamlined and the government is working on avoiding the glitches, said the state chief. Meanwhile, CM Sawant could not be contacted as he was busy chairing meetings.
Sources close to CM said though the Goa health care system was in good shape it can handle normal situations, and not the unprecedented one like the ongoing pandemic. The number of patients is too high compared to the present system which is now being upgraded on war footing, they said.
The Goa medical college hospital is equipped with 540 beds and currently 940 patients are availing treatment. Besides, at least 2 members from the family of one patient are currently camping at the hospital leading to chaos and strain on basic facilities. Lack of required number of staff to maintain the hospital is another important issue, which has become a sort of challenge, the sources said.
Apart from this, a significant number of staffers have also quit apparently due to the fear of pandemic and the strain.
The NGOs are also vitiating the atmosphere as many of them are filming the wards, patients, their relatives and making it viral only to create further chaos, alleged a senior leader of the party, who did not wish to come on record.
The positivity ratio of Goa is 35 to 40 per cent which was 51 per cent earlier. While around 300 recovered patients take discharge every day, around 200 new patients are admitted. This also leads to other issues such as the one like availability of sufficient number of staffers as Goa is a small state that faces shortage of doctors and trained staff.
The availability of oxygen was normal, claimed the sources close to CM adding, the daily requirement was around 26 MT of which 20 MT was made available by the centre. Question was about managing the supply. It requires some time to replace the cylinders, using a trolley. Unforeseen delay in managing the affairs resulted in some deaths.
