By Our Correspondent, Surkhet/Baglung, May 17: With the increasing number of COVID-19 cases across the country, many district hospitals are now facing a shortage of oxygen for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

According to our Surkhet correspondent, a 40-year-old woman from Lekbeshi Municipality was brought to the provincial hospital in Surkhet for treatment on Friday after she was infected with the coronavirus.

But relatives were compelled to take her to the Province Ayurveda Hospital after the provincial hospital denied admitting her stating that they had no bed with oxygen supply.

Now the flow of patients in the Ayurveda Hospital has increased significantly after the provincial hospital stopped admitting new COVID-19 patients who need oxygen.

Dr. Shankar Rijal, head of Province Ayurveda Hospital, said they could not admit new patients if the situation remained the same.The provincial hospital of Surkhet has informed that it cannot admit patients due to an acute shortage of oxygen in Surkhet.

The director of the hospital, Dr. Dummar Khadka, issued a notice on Friday stating that they could not take any more patients due to lack of oxygen.In the notice, it has been stated that the hospital needs 300 cylinders of oxygen daily.

There are now two oxygen plants, and the oxygen produced from the plants meets only 50 % of the demand of the hospital.The hospital needs to bring 150 cylinders from outside every day, but it received only 50 cylinders a day from Nepalgunj, the hospital informed.

Meanwhile, according to our Baglung correspondent, Dhaulagiri Hospital, Baglung, has also faced a shortage of oxygen with an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.

The hospital has not been able to admit new patients in lack of an adequate number of oxygen cylinders. Although the hospital has an oxygen plant and 70 oxygen cylinders, the available volume of oxygen is insufficient, Dr. Shailendra B Pokharel, head of the hospital, said.

The Oxygen plant of the hospital is connected to 75 beds, including 25 isolation beds. According to Dr. Pokharel, most of the patients in the ICU and isolation rooms have to be treated with a high flow of oxygen, therefore it is impossible to supply oxygen only from the plant and the available cylinders, Pokharel added.

He said that they have been using the 70 cylinders at night and sending those cylinders to Pokhara-based Kaligandaki Oxygen Company in the morning to fill them. But the cylinders sent from Baglung hospital are not given priority by the industry.

"There is a problem as the filling of oxygen is not on a regular schedule," said Dr. Pokharel.Now 33 patients, four in ICU and 29 in isolation beds, are receiving treatment, according to Bipana Gurung, staff of the hospital