Pune: A COVID-19 patient had to be shifted elsewhere from a city hospital when it ran out of oxygen on Tuesday.
The incident at the Yog Multispeciality Hospital showed how acute the problem of oxygen shortage has become even as the city reported over 5,000 new infections in the last 24 hours.
"Since morning, we have received 32 oxygen cylinders but our requirement is 200 per day. We are receiving another 15 cylinders from the district administration," said Dr Abhijit Darak, a physician at the hospital.
In the morning, the hospital had oxygen supply which would have lasted for one hour, so a patient who was on ventilator was shifted to another private hospital, he said.
The entire ventilator set-up was shifted alongwith the patient, Dr Darak said.
Luckily, an oxygen plant he visited agreed to supply 60 cylinders by night, he said.
While he is supposed to attend to patients in the ICU, the shortage is forcing him to visit oxygen plants instead in search for oxygen cylinders, he said.
