No More Worries of OXYGEN! 6K litre Capacity Liquid Oxygen Plant Now at Udupi Govt Hospital
No More Worries of OXYGEN! SIX Thousand- litre Capacity Liquid Oxygen Plant Now Installed at Government District Hospital-Udupi
Mangaluru : Couple of weeks ago, the demand for oxygen cylinders was soaring in Udupi district, where hospitals which needed five to six cylinders a day, needed about 50 cylinders of 7 cubic metre on a daily basis. The demand was also dynamic, depending on the number of patients with low oxygen saturation level getting admitted to hospital. As a result, the price of a cylinder increased from Rs 350 to Rs 500. Refilling of cylinders was done in Mangaluru, and transportation cost pushed up the price by Rs 80 to Rs 100 per cylinder, depending on the agency supplying it.
Taking quick action on this issue, Udupi DC G Jagadish had instructed suppliers of oxygen cylinders in the district to stop catering to industrial units as hospitals need them in large numbers to save lives. Only one private hospital in Udupi district — Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, has a liquid oxygen plant of 20,000-litre capacity- and KMC hospital ensured that the hospital did not rely on cylinders only, for the fact, Cylinders are used as back-up and in wards where there is no centralised oxygen supply, The District Government Hospital, Ajjarakad, Udupi, did not have a liquid oxygen plant till now.
Therefore, the health department wanted to set up a 6,000-litre capacity liquid oxygen plant near the District Government Hospital- and good news is that the oxygen plant was ready within a couple of weeks. “Now, with the installation of the Oxygen plant in the premises of Udupi District Government hospital on 22 October 2020, the shortage has been addressed” said district surgeon, Dr Madhusudan Nayak, speaking to Team Mangalorean. He further said, “The plant has been set up at a cost of Rs 50 lakhs, and it has the capacity to hold oxygen that is enough to fill 660 jumbo cylinders. With this, we won’t face any shortage of oxygen at the hospital anymore”.
“Prior COVID-19 pandemic, the district hospital consumed only 10 to 15 oxygen cylinders per day, but when Covid-19 kicked in , the demand for oxygen shot up as breathing complications aggravated, and the hospital needed around 30 to 40 cylinders per day. The health care dept personnel faced hardship in putting together the oxygen cylinders that were needed. I am glad that such a problem doesn’t exist anymore. The liquid form of oxygen is brought from Ballari, and then stored in the plant. Prior to the installation of the plant, the nurses had to replace cylinders immediately after they became empty. But now such a problem has been rectified, since oxygen in the form of gas directly is supplied through pipes to the hospital beds. This system is definitely more convenient for the patients,” added Dr Nayak.
Dr Nayak also said that when there was a shortage of oxygen cylinders in the state to treat the infected people, the government had ordered to set up oxygen plants in all the district hospitals. “This has been done and the facility helps in saving the lives of coronavirus patients who develop breathing complications, he explained.
