BHUBANESWAR: Of the seven pressure swing absorption (PSA) oxygen plants proposed six months back, the Centre has failed to set up a single facility in Odisha. Despite oxygen being one of the most vital medical essentials in the fight against Covid-19, the installation process carried out directly by the Centre moved at a snail’s pace once the Covid transmission hit a low in November 2020.
Odisha government had proposed the seven PSA oxygen plants to be set up at district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) in Sundargarh, Kalahandi, Malkangiri, Keonjhar, Kandhamal, Jajpur and Angul in October last year after the Centre sought proposals in this regard. Each plant costs around Rs 1.25 crore.
The seven oxygen plants were part of 162 such units planned by the Centre with funding from the PM-Cares corpus to produce medical oxygen on site. Once set up, oxygen generated at the plants can be directly supplied to hospital beds through a dedicated pipeline minimising the requirement of pressurised liquid oxygen now being used as an alternative.
The new oxygen plants would have produced 2,100 litre per minute (LPM) catering to the needs of around 2,000 beds in the hospitals with Jajpur and Keonjhar facilities producing the maximum 400 LPM each. Although there is no scarcity of oxygen in Odisha now, three of the seven districts proposed for the plants are the worst-hit due to their close proximity with Chhattisgarh.
Since the plants are fully funded from PM-Cares corpus, the Centre was to select the vendor and execute the project. The State government’s mandate was to provide land and it has already handed over the sites and made all logistic arrangements. However, the installation process slowed down following the decline in number of Covid cases last year.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra said the vendors chosen for Odisha have already completed site inspection. “We have nothing to do since the project is being executed directly by the Centre. We expect the plants to be set up in a war-footing so that the hospitals can be equipped with on-site oxygen facility,” he added.
In addition to that, the State government has recently proposed seven more DHHs as sought by the Centre to establish the PSA oxygen plants in the second phase. The oxygen plants will be set up at Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Bargarh, Puri, Khurda, Sambalur and Rourkela Government Hospital.
Odisha has seven government medical colleges but none of them has an oxygen plant. The hospitals with dedicated oxygen plants are AIIMS-Bhubaneswar and IGH at Rourkela besides SUM and KIIMS hospitals. The MCHs and DHHs procure oxygen from private manufactures to meet their requirement.
Mohapatra said the government has planned to set up 15 stand-alone oxygen plants, including six at medical college level and rest nine at DHH level. “A new plant has already come up at MKCG MCH in Berhampur which will be commissioned by end of this month. Tender has been floated for the new plants and the work is expected to begin soon,” he added.
No oxygen cylinder to remain empty
The State government on Thursday reviewed the oxygen availability with the manufacturers and asked the filling agencies to ensure that all hospitals treating Covid patients get uninterrupted supply. The State has five manufacturers, which produce around 375 tonne liquid medical oxygen daily, and 22 filling agencies. The cylinders available have a capacity of carrying 130 tonne of medical oxygen.
Additional Chief Secretary of Health PK Mohapatra said the manufacturers have been asked to produce in full capacity and the agencies to fill the cylinders at least two times a day to ensure that not a single cylinder remains empty. “All logistic arrangements have been made for smooth supply of oxygen. Per day oxygen requirement during the peak last year was 30 to 35 tonne. This time we have prepared for more than 10 times of peak requirement,” he added.