Covid-19: Hospitals directed to constitute committee to monitor oxygen use

The audit committee will have to provide the details on oxygen supply and consumption, the status of setting up oxygen PSA plant and the total number of oxygen-supported beds by August 20. Officials said that this will help keep a tab on the medical oxygen situation in the district and avoid a repeat of the circumstances experienced during the second Covid-19 wave in April and May

The district health department on Tuesday directed all private hospitals having at least 50 beds to set up an oxygen audit committee for monitoring the current oxygen requirement, its usage and wastage, in the backdrop of the state government extending the deadline for installation of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generating plants in hospitals to December 2021.

Hospitals and residents scrambled to get oxygen cylinders refilled during the second wave of Covid-19 in April and May 2021. (Vipin Kumar /HT PHOTO)

The audit committee will have to provide the details on oxygen supply and consumption, the status of setting up oxygen PSA plant and the total number of oxygen-supported beds by August 20. Officials said that this will help keep a tab on the medical oxygen situation in the district and avoid a repeat of the circumstances experienced during the second Covid-19 wave in April and May.

In an order issued by the health department, hospitals will form a five-member committee comprising a medical superintendent, anaesthetist, physician, nurse and technical support staff or oxygen supervisor. Also, each hospital will have to designate a nurse specifically for monitoring oxygen. “The committee will ensure optimal usage of oxygen, prevent wastage due to leakage and adoption of good oxygen therapy practices,” an order in this regard stated.

Dr Virender Yadav, the chief medical officer of Gurugram, said, “The details submitted by hospitals will help us in estimating and making future projections on the requirement of oxygen supply if there is a surge in coronavirus infection in the coming months. It will help us in keeping a tab on the wastage of oxygen and devise ways it can be prevented. The next course of action will be decided only after the details are submitted by August 20 and analysed by our team.”

In April and May, various private hospitals of the city grappled with a lack of liquid oxygen supply due to a sharp rise in coronavirus cases. Refilling cylinders became an impossible task due to the short supply of oxygen, as the demand increased from around 25 metric tonnes (MT) a day to almost 48 MT in a short span. Currently, the daily requirement of oxygen across the district is 10-12 MT, as per the rough estimates made by the health department.

In May, hospitals having a capacity of at least 50 beds were directed to install PSA oxygen plants. Currently, of 43 hospitals, only five private hospitals have fully functional oxygen plants, according to the health department data. The remaining hospitals are in the process of installing it and are likely to set it up in August and September.

Dr Vikram Singh, director of Aarvy Hospital in Civil Lines, said, “The PSA oxygen plant set up in the facility got functional on Tuesday. It is sufficient to refill 130 D-type oxygen cylinders. The daily requirement during the second Covid-19 wave was around 92-100 cylinders. Taking that requirement into consideration, the plant is sufficient enough for 70 oxygen beds in the hospitals,” said Singh.

He said that they would be submitting the details based on the format shared by the health department. It includes details like the total number of oxygen supported beds for adults and children along with the intensive care unit (ICU) and paediatric ICUs with and without a ventilator support system.

According to Yadav, Civil Hospital in Sector 10 also has a sufficient supply of medical oxygen due to the installation of a 750 LPM (litres per minute) oxygen plant. Additionally, a 1,000-LPM plant is likely to be installed by this week. Besides these, a 1.2 MT liquid oxygen tank is also available with the hospital.