At the crack of dawn, Nasir Ahmed, a 32-year small businessman, set out for the capital to fetch a medical oxygen cylinder for his mother who had been suffering from breathing difficulties.
Nasir’s 57-year-old mother suffered all night gasping for air and the doctor in his village in Kalidaspur in south-western Chuadanga district prescribed emergency oxygen therapy if they want to keep her alive.
This happened when the Covid-19 crisis in Bangladesh was just reaching its peak in early April. There was panic-buying of the oxygen cylinders, as patients usually suffered a rapid lung failure and required emergency breathing aid due to coronavirus attacks.
Such panic and sudden high demand for oxygen cylinders pushed prices up on an average between 100 and 150 percent as people, anticipating possible transmission of the virus, started stocking at their homes the most essential emergency medication to fight Covid-19.
The average price of the most commonly used 1.36 cubic meter volume oxygen cylinder set, including gas flow meter, regulator, breathing mask and a trolley, was between Tk 10,000 and Tk 16,000 before Covid-19 crisis hit Bangladesh in early March.
As rush-buying emerged, its prices escalated beyond the common man’s purchasing capacity. In such a moment of crisis, a set of oxygen cylinder cost no less than Tk 25,000, and on some occasions its price reached as high as Tk 30,000 apiece.
Nasir was unaware of the price hike and he sought cylinders within his budget of Tk 12,000, but he found none. He even sought the help of brokers at the city’s biggest medical equipment wholesalers’ market at BMA Bhavan in Topkhana Road and also in Tejgaon but no one could help.
Nasir’s mother died the following day after fighting her breathing difficulties. She was unable to get treatment at the local public hospital as they had no spare cylinder and the private healthcare systems in the semi-rural setting is too weak to offer such emergency support.
This was no coincidence given the fact that the health directorate knew the need for medicinal oxygen to treat patients fighting respiratory distress, especially when low oxygen level risks lives from coronavirus attacks.
But the health directorate took no initiative to facilitate such life-saving medicinal oxygen to hospitals where people first rush for treatment.
Asked why did they not take preparations to make sufficient quantities of the oxygen cylinders available, Dr Mohammad Farid Hossain Miah, Director of Hospital at the Directorate of Health Services (DGHS) told Bangladesh Post, “We were not prepared for such a sudden huge demand given that Covid-19 is completely unknown to us. However, DGHS officials concerned had been trying to fix the prices and bring it to a discipline.”
Until now DGHS has not been able to finalize and negotiate a price acceptable to all parties in the private sector. “We are in the process of meeting for the negotiations with all stakeholders engaged in the oxygen cylinder business. Hopefully, we expect to meet this Thursday to come to a consensus on the price and declare it,” said Dr Farid.
He also admitted that they failed to regulate the prices at a time when it was most urgent. “Yes, we should have acted (in early March) to prevent such unnecessary price hike and avoided public sufferings,” he added.
Sadly, DGHS shows no seriousness in solving the crisis despite a court order to fix the prices. The High Court in mid-June asked the authorities concerned to quickly come up with a reasonable price for oxygen cylinders and re-filling price.
Irrespective of what excuse DGHS gives, hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives were at risk, some of who perished silently without being documented, yet the officials seemed to care least.
The sky-high prices of the oxygen cylinders were revealed when some of the traders and brokers at BMA Bhavan admitted over phone that they sold the cylinders at exaggerated prices as there was a crisis in the market.
Monwar Hossain, a salesman at one of many shops in BMA Bhavan said, “I sold many oxygen cylinders and even arranged home delivery but the prices were twice as much during March, April, May and June. On average each set of oxygen cylinder cost about Tk 27,000.”
A fellow salesman said, “A syndicate of brokers raised the prices of the cylinders without having any reason. Many of us in this business for years, were caught by surprise at the sky-high prices of such life-saving product at a time when people were contracting coronavirus and fell critically ill.”
Many people were desperate in pursuit of the cylinder sets. Many even paid in advance to retailers to confirm receiving one. In high demand brokers, linked to some alleged syndicates, looked for opportunities of making quick buck in absence of monitoring.
Nadeem Hyder, a businessman in Moghbazar, said, “I was forced to negotiate and buy a set of oxygen cylinder from Tejgaon industrial area at a cost of Tk 24,500 from a broker who fetched a set only after I had made 50 percent advance payment.”
The cylinder crisis got worse over two-month lock-down period when thousands of others, like Nadeem, stockpiled cylinders in case of emergency.
The life-saving oxygen turned luxury from basic healthcare necessity. Many online healthcare business houses offered to deliver complete covid-19 treatment packages including oxygen set, nursing assistant and physicians’ advice on the phone. This came at a heavy cost ranging from Tk 35,000 and Tk 42,000.
Professor Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, Director General of DGHS told this correspondent that he was very concerned about such price hike and he had already formed a committee involving all the stakeholders in this business to negotiate and fix the price of the oxygen cylinder sets including re-filling prices.
“We wish to regulate this. However, as many of the suppliers or dealers have problems with renewing their licences, I think it may take a while to get a recommendation on how to regulate the private business.”
Oxygen cylinders in Bangladesh are largely made available by four major licenced medical gas manufacturers - Spectra Oxygen Ltd (SOL), Linde Bangladesh Ltd, Islam Oxygen Ltd and Bangladesh Industrial Gases Ltd (BIGL, Tangail).
The officials concerned (CEO, COO and MDs) of the companies were contacted for comments on the crisis. All four officials claimed that they had no role in manipulating prices of the cylinders. They claimed that retailers and brokers were responsible for the unregulated price hike of the cylinders.
According to Md Monjurul Hafiz, Chief Inspector of Department of Explosives, SOL has imported the largest quantities of the cylinders having 41,723, followed by Linde having 23,790, Islam Oxygen – 6,900 and BIGL only 200. Another 4,800 cylinders are in the process of being imported by three other companies.
Meanwhile, the government has already fixed the price of cylinder sets for supply to all its hospitals across the country. The Directorate of Drug Administration (DGDA), when contacted, said they already fixed the price of oxygen gas at Tk 54 per cubic meter, which means, it would cost a customer to fill a cylinder having the capacity of 1.36 cubic meter of the gas roughly Tk 75.
Abu Hena Morshed Zaman who very recently joined as the new Director of Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) under DGHS, told Bangladesh Post, “Before I joined CMSD had a framework agreement with a particular oxygen cylinder supplier at a price of Tk 26,000 a piece which I thought was not rationale. We then negotiated with two of the most reputed medical gas manufacturers and agreed on Tk 15,000 apiece.”
“As agreed, we have, in fact already received over half of our required amount of 10,000 units and expecting the rest pretty soon,” Zaman added.
In absence of any vigilance, the syndicates seem to continue to dominate the ‘oxygen business’ as demand for the cylinders still stays high. Each set still today costs between Tk 22,000 and Tk 26,000.