Eight COVID-19 patients, including the HOD of gastroenterology department, of Batra Hospital in Delhi died due to oxygen shortage, officials said on Saturday.
"We are trying to revive five other critical patients," said Dr S C L Gupta.
Hospitals across the national capital had sent out SOS messages last week about depleting supplies of oxygen.
The Delhi government has maintained that the city is not getting its allocated quantity of the life-saving gas.
The hospital told the Delhi High Court that it was out of oxygen supply for about an hour.
Batra Hospital told the court, "We didn't get oxygen on time. We ran out of oxygen at 12 noon. We got oxygen at 1:35 pm. We have lost lives, including one of our own doctors," reported India Today.
"We ran our operation for almost an hour without oxygen supply," said Dr. SCL Gupta, Medical Director of Batra Hospital.
In an SOS message, the Batra Hospital had earlier said, "Oxygen will last for another 10 minutes. 326 patients are admitted at this hospital."
Later Delhi minister Raghav Chaddha said, "Our SOS cryogenic tanker carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen is reaching Batra Hospital within 5 minutes. Their regular supplier of oxygen has defaulted yet again due to alleged 'lack of oxygen supplies' and is being pulled up."
The oxygen was later supplied to the hospital, but the hospital said by that time 8 patients had already died.
Meanwhile, the NKS Super Specialty Hospital also told the high court that they are in a dire situation.
'Hospitals should set up oxygen plants'
The Delhi High Court on Saturday said hospitals should learn from their experiences regarding oxygen scarcity during the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and set up plants for generating the life-saving gas.
The bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said for commercial considerations, some hospitals reduce capital expenditures on things like oxygen plants which are essential in a hospital, especially the big ones.
"Oxygen plants are essential. It is irresponsible not to have them," the bench said.
