No shortage of hospital beds, oxygen a concern: Noida CMO tells MLA Pankaj Singh

Noida MLA Pankaj Singh on Thursday said Gautam Buddh Nagar's chief medical officer has told him that there is no shortage of hospital beds in the district but "oxygen is a concern".

Singh visited the Child PGI in sector 30 here to review the pandemic situation and held a meeting with CMO Deepak Ohri.

Singh, who is also the ruling BJP's general secretary of Uttar Pradesh, was informed by the CMO that efforts are underway to scale up availability of oxygen for the district and even the help of the Air Force has been taken for this purpose.

During the meeting with officials of Child PGI and other district health officers, the MLA, who has been on ground visits to review the pandemic situation in Noida, stressed the need for hospital staff interacting with patients with "extreme sensitivity and kindness".

Gautam Buddh Nagar adjoining Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh is one of the worst-hit districts of the state having an official death toll of 284 and over 8,500 active coronavirus patients.

Hit hard by the pandemic, the local residents have been claiming shortage of healthcare resources like medicines, oxygen and beds in hospitals even as the district administration has continued to refute such claims. "The CMO said there is no shortage of beds in hospitals of the districts but availability of oxygen is a concern," MLA Singh said in a statement.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath are constantly monitoring the situation for overcoming oxygen shortage. The district administration of Gautam Buddh Nagar has also taken the Air Force's help to procure oxygen and is scaling up efforts," Singh said.

Besides this, an oxygen plant with a capacity of generating 15,000 litres of the gas in an hour is coming up soon at the Child PGI for which the state government has also granted approval, he said.

The MLA also appealed to the people to follow all COVID-19 protocols and guidelines and called on them to encourage all frontline workers, especially health care staff engaged in the COVID-19 duty.

As part of his ongoing personal initiative during the pandemic, the MLA distributed COVID-19 kits containing medicines and other items to several under-privileged people and families in Noida, according to the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)