Hospital in Jhansi going the Gorakhpur way?

The Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi has raised concerns that the hospital could suffer a similar tragedy as Gorakhpur's BRD Hospital, where over 70 children died due to an alleged oxygen-supply disruption.

The reason behind this is because the 700-bed hospital has a single vendor that supplies oxygen tanks and that too mostly on credit.

According to a report on Hindustan Times, the concerned hospital has owed Gauri Gas Private Limited Rs 36 lakh since 2016. However, the authorities cleared the vendor's bills up to June 2017 only after they received funds from the state government on August 14, five days after the death of nearly 70 children at Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das Medical College .

In March 2017, the contract of Gauri Gas has been expired but the company continues to supply oxygen cylinders to the hospital. Meanwhile, no process to float a fresh tender has been started till date.

The hospital at present gets patients coming in from seven districts in UP and even from Madhya Pradesh.

The hospital has 95% occupancy on normal days, consuming 120 to 150 jumbo size oxygen cylinders daily. If fresh oxygen stocks don't arrive, the hospital maintains a reserve of 25 to 50 cylinders. The hospital also struggles with equipment shortage and lack of staff.

Although former doctors express apprehension about the state of preparedness of the hospital to deal with a serious crisis, its principal was confident that a Gorakhpur-like situation won't ever arise.

OneIndia News