Ruia tragedy attributed to stress on medical infrastructure
The Hindu
There has been a surge in cases in the last four days
The death of 11 patients due to disruption in oxygen supply at Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia hospital on Monday night is primarily attributed to the heavy stress on medical infrastructure. The sudden rush of patients requiring oxygen, especially over the last four days, had a cumulative effect. The brief disruption in the flow of oxygen from the tank was said to have caused the incident. Though a tanker from a plant in Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu) was scheduled to arrive at 5 p.m., it reached by 8.30 p.m. As the pressure from the ‘near empty’ tank had come down by then, the authorities rushed in to provide oxygen from bulk cylinders. The delay of five minutes involved for the replacement, though unofficially pegged at 25 minutes by the relatives of the victims, caused the disaster. Ruia hospital has 1,028 beds, of which 876 are marked for COVID-19 patients and the remaining for non-COVID cases. However, as the inflow remained unabated in the last four days, the authorities tried to accommodate as many COVID cases as possible even on the non-COVID beds. According to superintendent K. Bharathi, 962 patients were undergoing treatment as on Tuesday morning, with 250 of them tagged as ‘serious cases’. There are many more in the triaging and testing areas.More Related News
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