About 30 children, some suffering from encephalitis, reportedly died in the last 48 hours in BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, hometown and parliamentary constituency of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, allegedly due to disrupted supply of oxygen.

Significantly, the Chief Minister was in Gorakhpur on Friday but he was not informed by the hospital and district authorities about the short supply of oxygen.

The state government was quick to deny the 30 deaths was due to cut in oxygen supply.

The UP government’s official Twitter handle denied the allegations stating that ‘no patient had died due to lack of oxygen at the BRD Medical College of Gorakhpur’.

Advertising

Advertising

It further added: “The news of the death of many patients admitted to hospital in the past few hours due to the lack of oxygen run on some channels is misleading. The District Magistrate is staying in the hospital and are monitoring the situation.”

Meanwhile, Ahmed Hasan, former Samajwadi Party Health minister charged: “If 30 deaths are reported from Chief Minister's hometown in a day then one can very well understand what improvement the BJP government has brought in providing medical facilities to critical patients."

The liquid oxygen supplier, Pushpa Sales, had informed the hospital authorities, two months back that they would stop supply due to non-payment of their dues to the tune of Rs 69 lakhs for the past two years.

Pushpa Sales, the liquid oxygen supplier to Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College Gorakhpur also wrote a letter on August 1, warning that they'd be forced to stop supply if hospital did not clear their dues of over Rs 69 lakhs.

A copy of the letter

In a letter dated August 1, 2017 written to the Principal BRD Medical College, the Pushpa Sales Manager Deepankar Sharma had categorically stated that they were making their last supply to the hospital on the date to keep the oxygen plant going for next 4-5 days keeping in mind critical patients, but they will be forced to cut the supply if their dues were not cleared by the hospital.

Sharma further stated in the letter that their company buys oxygen from Dehradun-based Innox Company, which has it would stop supply oxygen to Pushpa Sales if it did not clear their dues.

“In such circumstances, it is requested to the hospital authorities to clear company’s dues at once failing which we will be forced to stop supply of oxygen to the hospital and company will not bear any responsibility,” the Sales Officer categorically warned in the letter.

As per the hospital’s agreement with Pushpa Sales, the company was supposed to give a credit of Rs 10 lakhs but hospital would have to clear the due amount over and above the credit limit, to enjoy uninterrupted supply of oxygen from the company. The hospital was supposed to make payment within 15 days of the company raising the bill.

Company officials claimed that for the past two years since the hospital plant became operational, the hospital authorities were dilly-dallying over payment of their dues over and above the credit limit. Today the dues rose to Rs 69 lakhs and company was forced to stop supply of oxygen.

About 23 children died on Thursday and remaining seven on Friday.

The technician of the oxygen unit in the hospital had informed the principal and heads of all critical units on Thursday morning about the low pressure of oxygen in the central pipeline following Pushpa Sales denying supply of oxygen further. But hospital authorities did not make any alternate arrangements.

However, when the situation started getting out of hand on Thursday evening ,the panic-stricken authorities ordered 100 cylinders from other suppliers and 50 from neighbouring Faizabad. About 160 cylinders are required daily to maintain adequate supply in the hospital through central pipeline.

Other companies refused to supply oxygen cylinders on credit. The District magistrate Rajeev Rautela initially confirmed the toll but later clarified that 30 deaths were reported in 48 hours. “It is a matter of probe and medical examination whether or not these deaths occurred due to cut in supply of oxygen,” said the DM.

The principal Rajeev Mishra refused to talk to media persons saying that his priority was to save the lives of patients first and make all possible effort to restore oxygen supply.

The Health Minister Dr Sidhartha Nath Singh did not take repeated calls made by DNA.