In recent developments, the medical community of Maharashtra raged against the advice of the state health secretary to use medical oxygen wisely further hinting at possible audit.
This further forced the Maharashtra government to authorize a clarification on Monday, September 21, stating that the government does not have any plans of restricting the consumption of oxygen by the patients suffering from the coronavirus. Furthermore, Health Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas asserted that the patients are to receive an adequate amount of oxygen required for a speedy recovery.
According to sources, private hospitals have been consuming more than twice the amount of oxygen than the government hospitals. As a consequence, the health department had earlier expressed the need to have an independent inquiry with regards to the matter. Currently, the state consumes 600 metric tonnes of oxygen per day for patients suffering from the coronavirus. About 5 to 6 per cent of the patients undergoing treatment are supplied with oxygen. This is about 10 per cent of the total patients in the state.
However, oxygen usage rates are charged in private hospitals whereas public health systems do not charge for oxygen. Therefore, the principal secretary of the health department, Dr Pradeep Vyas had directed the district health authorities to find out the exact amount of oxygen required by all the hospitals per day.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra clocked 15,738 cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours taking the COVID-19 tally in the state to 12,24,380. The positivity rate, recovery rate, and fatality rate for the coronavirus in Maharashtra stand at 20.71 per cent, 74.84 per cent, and 2.7 per cent respectively.
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