Able to bring down O2 requirement of medical colleges by about 50 MT: UP

The Uttar Pradesh government said on Wednesday that it has been able to bring down oxygen demand by medical colleges in the state by about 50 metric tonnes (MT) through its oxygen audit exercise. However, western UP districts are seeing a higher demand that needs to be addressed, it said.

The state had taken the help of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Banaras Hindu University and Indian Institute of Management Lucknow for the oxygen audit of hospitals that it undertook in April, at the peak of oxygen shortage in the state. The results gain significance as a similar audit was ordered by the Supreme Court recently for Delhi, brushing aside the Delhi government’s resistance in this regard. The court also appointed a panel for the exercise.

On Wednesday, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said in a meeting that the audit has yielded “positive results”. He said about a week ago, medical colleges were demanding about 300-350 MT per day, which has come down to 250-300 MT now. Last week he had said the audit had confirmed that some hospitals were consuming “higher than average” oxygen. On Wednesday, 313 MT of the gas was supplied to medical colleges out of the total 1,014.53 MT. A senior official said while the state is lifting the Centre-allocated fill from places like Haldia, Durgapur and Jamnagar, transportation is still a challenge and the administration has not stopped getting urgent calls from hospitals.