Watch: Critically-ill patients in ICU gasp for oxygen after power outage in govt hospital in BJP-ruled MP

Days after 12 patients died due to shortage of oxygen in a government-run hospital in Shahdol, several critically-ill patients including those who had contracted COVID, gasped for oxygen on Friday after a sudden power outage in a government hospital in Rewa in the Vindhya region.

A resident of Rewa shared a video on Facebook in which patients can be seen gasping for oxygen after power went out in the district hospital, claiming that the video was shot by a relative of a patient admitted in the hospital. Attendees can be seen panicking in the video and complaining to the hospital staff for failing to switch on power backup in time.

Similarly, in Jabalpur, at least five COVID patients reportedly died due to lack of oxygen support. News agency ANI reported that the five patients admitted in Galaxy hospital died due to shortage of oxygen on Thursday.

Siddharth Tiwari, Congress candidate from Rewa for the Lok Sabha polls held in 2019, said that shortage of oxygen is a huge cause of concern in the state.

“But attributing the issues being faced just to the shortage of oxygen would be undermining the crisis. The total health care system in the state has collapsed. Beds are not available in hospitals; testing is not being done and oxygen supply from neighbouring districts has been stopped,” he said.

Calling it “monumental mismanagement,” Tiwari added, “I sounded the alarm bell a year ago and suggested that the Centre should make a dedicated 250-bed COVID hospital in Rewa. But they did not pay heed to my suggestion. They were busy hatching a conspiracy to overthrow the Congress government in power in the state at the time.”

The Vindhya region is considered to be a BJP stronghold. All eight assembly seats falling under the Lok Sabha constituency went to the BJP in the last assembly polls.

Attacking the BJP for negligence and playing with people’s lives, Tiwari questioned the role played by the district administration in tackling the COVID pandemic. “The district administration is busy fudging data at the behest of the state government so that the real picture can be hid,” he said.

Rewa-based social activist Ranveer Singh too made the same allegation while speaking to National Herald. “The district administration is fudging data at the behest of the BJP government in power in the state. At least four people whom I knew for years died due to COVID, but the administration did not count them as COVID deaths. The situation is getting from bad to worse in this part of the state. The irony is that nobody seems to be bothered about it as the focus of the administration and media remains on big cities,” he said

The BJP-ruled state, which is one of the biggest in the country, does not have a single medical oxygen plant, National Herald had reported on April 21.