Committee demands Liquid oxygen plant at MGM

Warangal: The MGM Parirakshana Committee leaders expressed their concern over the growing deaths in the emergency wards of the MGM Hospital.A The deaths, according the committee leaders, were caused by low quality, low pressure oxygen supply. For instance between 2008 to 2013 there have been 933 deaths in respiratory intensive care unit (RICU) out of the 1873 admissions to the ward.

The figures clearly tells that half of the patients admitted to respiratory intensive care unit have died, said the committee convener Gudimalla Ravi Kumar.A In a similar manner in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and special newborn care unit (SNCU) at the hospital there have been 258 deaths out of 380 admissions between 2012 and 2013. All these deaths were caused by lack of a liquid oxygen plant (LOP) at the hospital.

The doctors at the hospital and the people's organisations have demanded the MGM management and the government to initiate steps to set up the plant. A The issue was discussed at the meetings of the hospital and raised by the professors of Kakatiya Medical College but none cared to address the issue, Ravi Kumar lamented. According to the committee leader the MGMH authorities were procuring the oxygen cylinders at exorbitant rates.

The hospital authorities paying Rs 385 per the refill of a cylinder while the same was being supplied at Rs 200, he added.A Ravi Kumar demanded a judicial probe into the matter and take urgent steps to set up a liquid oxygen plant at the hospital. The committee members E Manohar Rao, Bakki Raghavulu, Odapalli Venu Gopal and others.