Delhi exaggerated oxygen demand by more than 4 times during 2nd COVID-19 wave: Supreme Court panel
A Supreme Court audit panel has stated that Delhi government demand four times more oxygen than was required during second COVID-19 wave.
The report which emerged on Friday says the demand for oxygen was exaggerated by Delhi government between April 25 and May 10 by more than four times in the middle of India’s second wave.
As per the interim audit report, excess medical oxygen claimed by Delhi could have possibly triggered a supply crisis in 12 states with high COVID-19 case loads during the second wave.The Supreme Court-appointed oxygen audit team has said in its interim report, "The Delhi government's claim of 1,140 Metric Tonnes of Oxygen was four times the calculated consumption as per bed formula, which was 289 MT only."
The report lists four hospitals in Delhi - Singhal Hospital, Aruna Asif Ali Hospital, ESIC Model Hospital and Liferay Hospital – for claiming high oxygen consumption.
As per the audit, these hospitals claimed "extremely high oxygen consumption with few beds and claims appeared to be erroneous, leading to extremely skewed info and significantly higher oxygen requirement."
The apex court had asked the panel to study the oxygen demand and supply requirement for Delhi and other states in lieu of the Oxygen crisis that hit several parts of the country during the peak of the second wave.
In Delhi, the caseload peaked in April-May and several hospitals sent out SOS messages as a severe oxygen supply crisis gripped the national capital. Several lives were lost due to depleting oxygen supplies at hospitals.
At that point, Delhi High Court had questioned the centre of why Delhi was being supplied less oxygen than Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and why the AAP governent’s request to increase the oxygen quota was not heeded.
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud had directed the Centre to maintain Delhi’s oxygen supply at 700 MT on May 5. At that time Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had argued that experts’ calculation had pegged Delhi’s medical oxygen requirement at around 415 MT.