Five Covid patients died in Aligarh town on Wednesday night after the private hospital treating them ran out of oxygen and the Uttar Pradesh government failed to supply more in time, their families have alleged.

Dr Sanjiv Sharma, medical superintendent of the SJD Hospital, and a government official denied that lack of oxygen had caused the deaths.

“Hospital authorities told us in the evening they had no oxygen left and the patients had to be shifted,” Shyam Kumar, relative of Mukesh Kumar who died at the SJD Hospital, said.

He said the families could not find beds in hospitals that had oxygen and requested SJD authorities “to make some arrangement”.

“But the government hadn’t supplied oxygen by the time the fifth patient died at 2am,” he said.

Earlier this week, Delhi High Court had rapped the Centre for failing to divert oxygen from industry to hospitals, and Allahabad High Court had observed that the Covid resurgence was about to overwhelm the health infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh.

Dr Sharma said: “The deaths didn’t occur from an oxygen shortage. The patients were senior citizens and had severe chest infection from the coronavirus. We had suggested the families take them to higher referral centres but they didn’t listen.”

Shyam, however, said: “The dead were young or middle-aged and not senior citizens. Sarita Rani was 54, Mukesh Kumar was 30, Anil Kashyap was 50, Jaiveer Singh was 50 and Lalit Prasad was 52 – you can cross-check with the hospital records.”

Aligarh city magistrate Vinit Kumar Singh, a civil servant, said: “The SJD Hospital had demanded oxygen at 9.15pm and we supplied 40 cylinders within the hour. There was no oxygen shortage at the hospital.”

Dr B.P. Kalyani, chief medical officer (CMO) for Aligarh district, said assistant CMO Anupam Bhaskar was probing the families’ allegation.

Government sources said that work had stopped at three of Aligarh’s four oxygen-manufacturing plants because of a shortage of certain liquid chemicals.

“About 10 tonnes of the liquid was sent from Roorkee to Aligarh on Thursday morning,” an official said, requesting he not be named.

“The only operational plant in the district is producing 250 cylinders of oxygen a day whereas the demand is 400 cylinders, and is increasing every day with the rising number of patients.”

Hospital crisis

Hospital after hospital in Uttar Pradesh complained of an oxygen shortage on Thursday and accused the state government of letting them down.

Some put up notices asking families to shift Covid patients.

“We have been trying to get oxygen since 6am but there’s no response from those (government officials) supposed to ensure it,” Dr Ritu, director of Kailash Hospital in Noida, told reporters at 5pm.

“We want the patients to shift elsewhere: we can’t see them dying here.”

An aide said almost half the hospital’s 450 patients had Covid infections.

Prakash Hospital in Noida was supposed to receive a consignment of oxygen cylinders on Thursday morning but it never came, nor was any reason cited. Frustration led one of its employees to allege favouritism.

“Some hospitals are getting oxygen in time but many are being ignored,” the employee said on the condition of anonymity.

“We had told the government right at the beginning to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply if it wanted us to function as a dedicated Covid hospital.”

Sources said the oxygen crisis was resolved at some of Lucknow’s hospitals on Wednesday night after an outcry earlier in the day.

But an executive at Chandan Hospital in Lucknow said: “We are unable to treat our Covid patients because the state government is sending only half the promised oxygen cylinders. Covid patients consume huge quantities of oxygen in a very short time. So we have stopped admissions and are requesting the families of the already admitted patients to shift them elsewhere.”

At Charak Hospital, Lucknow, the management has put up a notice asking families to take their Covid patients elsewhere.

“The state government is behaving like a criminal. The hospitals want to save the patients but the government wants them to die,” said Seema Singh, 50, wife of a Covid patient at Charak.

“Why else should there be shortages of everything, from Covid beds and Covid hospitals to medicines and oxygen? My husband will soon die because the state government is not providing oxygen.”

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath was quoted as saying at a virtual meeting with officials that there was no shortage of oxygen in the state but some black marketeers were hoarding it. He ordered a crackdown.