BMC chief: If somebody laughs at us, how do I share Mumbai mannequin

The Covid curve in his metropolis on its manner down, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal mentioned that the “Mumbai model” might work in different cities and states provided that there was honesty concerning the severity of the coronavirus downside.
“Two months back I used to get calls from my colleagues in the government of India, asking why only Maharashtra has Covid. And they would laugh at us. If someone is laughing at us, how do I share my model with them?… When calamity hits, there is no time to learn, don’t have the cushion time to copy those models,” he mentioned on the Idea Exchange interplay with The Indian Express newsroom Thursday. (An in depth transcript will probably be printed May 10.)

He mentioned he had attended a gathering of Delhi authorities and Central officers on Wednesday evening, hours after the Supreme Court instructed them to “draw from the (Mumbai) experience.”
“I told the Delhi government that no hospital should be forced to add beds. The SOS calls from hospitals are because they are forced to increase oxygenated beds overnight, which is not supplemented with oxygen storage,” Chahal mentioned.
Mumbai’s oxygen issues had been “history” now, he added, due to optimum utilisation of accessible oxygen, seamless distribution and creation of buffer inventory, coupled with the BMC’s capacity to tug collectively its current sources.

While there had been no deaths in Mumbai resulting from oxygen scarcity, Chahal recounted one lengthy evening when a disaster left them on edge. On the intervening evening of April 16-17, as many as 168 sufferers had been evacuated in an emergency operation from six civic hospitals the place oxygen provides had been operating low, and rushed in cardiac ambulances to Mumbai’s ‘jumbo’ Covid care services. Choking up with tears as he recalled the incident, Chahal mentioned 40 of the sufferers had been essential. Eventually, all had been safely transferred between 1 am and 5 am, he mentioned. “I am so happy that we could save 100 per cent of these lives.”

“After this incident, on April 17, the BMC went to the state task force, asking for a protocol for oxygen consumption. The oxygen saturation level need not be maintained beyond 94%, high-flow nasal oxygen which is a guzzler should not be blindly used, and there should be an oxygen consumption audit — this was circulated to all 176 hospitals in the city,” he mentioned.
Chahal mentioned he had additionally reached out to Delhi, together with officers he had labored with throughout postings on the Centre, to make sure there have been no oxygen points. “I sent out messages to top bureaucrats — Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Home Secretary and Health Secretary, eight top politicians of the state, including the CM, Deputy CM.”
Praising Gauba, who was Chahal’s boss when each had been within the Union Home Ministry, the Commissioner mentioned he was fast to reply. Asked whether or not there had been any points due to the Centre-state tussle, as being seen in Delhi, Chahal mentioned he had not had such issues.
According to the Commissioner, his suggestion to the Centre was import of oxygen. “The turnaround time for oxygen supply from the allocated unit in Haldia is eight days, which was not feasible. I suggested (to the Cabinet Secretary) oxygen from Reliance industries in Jamnagar, which is just 16 hours away from Mumbai. By 1 pm that that day, 125 metric tonnes of oxygen was allocated to us from Jamnagar.”
The BMC head additionally praised Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for giving him a “tremendous free hand” and mentioned: “I must tell you that I am very lucky in many ways. Virtually, I can take any decision. That is the kind of free hand (the CM) has given me, which is not available to my colleagues in many cities of the country.”

Chahal, who took cost as Commissioner in May final 12 months when the Mumbai Covid state of affairs was quick deteriorating, mentioned the creation of ward battle rooms, dashboards for beds, banning of labs from handing over Covid check studies to constructive sufferers , and the choice to not dismantle jumbo Covid services after the primary wave had been all essential in dealing with the second wave. He mentioned the system was on “auto pilot” now.
About not permitting labs to share check studies, Chahal mentioned, “They shared the report at 7 pm… Hearing the news, there were panic calls and scrambling for beds. There were thousands of phone calls on one single helpline number, collapsing the central control room. When I joined… we did not have a dashboard, our control room operators used to check with individual hospitals if a bed is empty. It was a harrowing experience for me between May 10 and 25… Patients not running for hospitals beds also helped us control the spread of the virus. Otherwise, a single patient would have infected 200 more in his/her hunt for hospitals beds.”
He mentioned Mumbai was already getting ready for the third wave, with extra jumbo services and oxygen vegetation, including almost 5,500 beds, of which 70% will probably be oxygenated.