New Delhi: A parliamentary panel in November final yr had advocated that the central authorities increase hospital beds and oxygen manufacturing. The options got here months earlier than the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hit India delivering a major blow to the medical system.
Chaired by Samajwadi Party chief Ram Gopal Yadav, The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health had advocated that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority take applicable steps to cap the worth of oxygen cylinders to make sure their availability and affordability.
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“The Committee also recommends the government for encouraging adequate production of oxygen for ensuring its supply as per demand in the hospitals,” acknowledged the report submitted in parliament in November final yr.
The report emphasised that the overall variety of authorities hospital beds within the nation was “grossly inadequate” conserving in view the Covid-19 scenario.
The panel famous that the efficacy of the containment plan towards the Coronavirus pandemic was being additional difficult by lack of hospital beds and insufficient ventilators
“As the numbers of cases were on the rise, a frantic search for vacant hospital beds became quite harrowing. Instances of patients being turned away from overburdened hospitals due to lack of vacant beds became the new normal. The scenario of patients holding oxygen cylinders rushing from pillar to post in search of bed in AIIMS Patna is a testimony to the fact that tears apart humanity,” it mentioned.
Expressing fear over the poor state of the healthcare system, the panel additionally advisable that the federal government improve its public well being funding and take mandatory steps to decentralise healthcare companies/amenities within the nation.
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The report acknowledged that the Health and Family Welfare secretary had knowledgeable the committee on October 16, 2020 that the ministry had requested the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to repair the worth of oxygen as non-invasive oxygen has been discovered to ship good outcomes.
“The overall production in the country is roughly in the region of 6,900 metric tons every day. Out of 6,900 metric tons, the highest consumption of medical oxygen was reported in mid-September, in and around 24th or 25th September, when the consumption was almost 3,000 metric tons of oxygen a day,” the report knowledgeable.
“The committee agrees with the department that the pandemic has led to an unprecedented increase in the demand for non-invasive oxygen cylinders and instances of lack of oxygen cylinders in the hospitals had also been reported,” it added.
The report’s options have come to gentle whereas a number of months later India is grappling with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting over 3,00,000 every day new instances. Hospitals in a number of states are reeling beneath a scarcity of medical oxygen, beds, and antiviral medication a lot in order that hospitals in Delhi needed to strategy the High Court to have their grievances heard.
(With Agency Inputs)
