NEW DELHI, June 25 (Xinhua) -- An audit team set up by India's Supreme Court during the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 last month has reported that the government of the national capital had sought medical oxygen several times what was actually needed.
The sub-group's interim report submitted to the court said that the Delhi government's claim of 1,140 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) for the use in locally-based 183 hospitals was several times its calculated consumption.
"The sub-group set up by Supreme Court for oxygen audit of Delhi noted gross discrepancy in actual consumption claimed versus calculated consumption by formula for bed capacity," local media quoted the report as saying.
The report said there were four hospitals with very few beds claiming extremely high liquid medical oxygen (LMO) consumption and "the claims appeared to be clearly erroneous leading to extremely skewed info and significantly higher oxygen requirement for Delhi."
The oxygen audit team also noted that the supply of excess oxygen to Delhi could have affected supply to 12 states reporting a high COVID-19 caseload.
During the April-May period, Delhi's medical system had suffered a major shortage of oxygen, hospital beds, and medicines needed for treating COVID-19 patients. Enditem
