The state government had set an August-end deadline for setting up the oxygen generation plants
The Bihar government has set up only one of the 123 oxygen generation plants proposed to be installed by the end of August, 2021, even as fears of a third wave of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) looms.
The Patna High Court had pulled up the state government several times in April-May this year when the eastern state was going through an acute shortage of oxygen at the peak of the second wave. In response, the health department announced the plan to set up 123 new oxygen plants by August 30, 2021.
The plan was to install oxygen plants at 10 sub divisional hospitals and at 36 district hospitals, said Ghalib Kaleem, a social activist, who helped patients and their families during the second COVID-19 wave.
Through July 22, however, Bihar failed to set up even 5 per cent of the number plants proposed to meet the oxygen demand in government and private hospitals.
The delay exposed the eastern state’s lack of preparedness for the third COVID-19 wave although health minister Mangal Pandey, who claimed that the government is fully ready. The remaining 122 oxygen plants will be set up within the deadline.
On July 18, the first proposed oxygen plant was set up at the government-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna.
It will not be possible to achieve the target of setting up all the remaining oxygen plants in the next 40 days, a senior official of the health department told Down to Earth on condition of anonymity. “Only two to three dozen oxygen plants at district headquarters will be set up by the end of next month. At a few places, work is still in the initial stages and at several places, it will take at least three months.”
A doctor of the government-run hospital said:
If the state government took nearly three months to set up only one oxygen plant, that too in Patna, how will it set up dozens of oxygen plants at different district headquarters in the state?
There will be repetition of oxygen crisis witnessed in April-May if COVID-19 third wave hits the state by mid-August.”
The National Highway Authority of India had also announced in early May to set up 15 oxygen plants in the state,but there is no development on this front till date, Ghalib said.
Experts and residents called out the central and Bihar government for claiming no COVID-19 death during the second wave was due to lack of oxygen.
“Authorities of government hospitals publicly expressed their helplessness over the lack of oxygen and the Patna High Court pointed out the failure of the government to supply oxygen several times and issued directives to ensure supply. What about that?” said Ashok Kumar Singh,a businessman, who lost a close relative who couldn’t get oxygen supply in time.
The Patna High Court April 29 described the state government’s action plan to tackle the second wave of COVID-19 as “wrong”, and announced an email address for people to directly submit their complaints regarding a lack of oxygen supply to it.
This was the first time a court directly intervened to ensure supply of medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients in public and private hospitals.
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