Capacity enhancement proposed for new oxygen plants in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad: The construction work of 10 new oxygen plants in the district is likely to get complete by the end of this month

Ghaziabad: The construction work of 10 new oxygen plants in the district is likely to get complete by the end of this month. However, two of them need capacity enhancement as per the state government’s new direction that the new plants should be a minimum capacity of generating 150 litres gas per minute (LPM), officials said.

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The two plants -- one at Sanjay Nagar district hospital and another at the MMG district hospital -- will have a capacity of about 140 LPM each. The MMG district hospital will have two oxygen plants, the officials said.

The other plants are being developed at ESIC Hospital at Sahibabad , district women hospital, one each at four community health centres at Loni, Muradnagar, Modinagar and Dasna, besides one at Bhojpur primary health centre. These government facilities have a provision of 521 beds at present, said the officials.

The decision to set up new plants was taken up after acute oxygen shortage hampered health-care services during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“All the proposed plants have a capacity of 240 LPM each, except the one at Sanjay Nagar and one of the two at MMG district hospital. When the plants were proposed, there were no specific directions about their capacities. So, we will get one additional plant each installed at MMG hospital and at Sanjay Nagar hospital,” said Virendra Kumar, general manager of district industries department.

Another official familiar with the development said that eight of the 10 oxygen plants were sanctioned through CSR funds. “If capacity enhancement is done, it would require roping in more CSR funds. So, it will be difficult to get more funds than already sanctioned by private organisations. Further, oxygen plants should ideally be built at district hospitals and not at the CHCs or the PHC. It would be better if through CSR funds, high capacity oxygen plants are installed at all district hospitals,” said the officer while requesting not to be identified.

The health department officials explained that one oxygen bed requires 10 LPM of oxygen supply while one bed (with ventilator) requires 24 LPM of oxygen supply.

“So, a plant of 140LPM capacity will be able to supply oxygen to only 14 oxygen beds. So, the capacity enhancement is required. Initial works like surveys and tenders are complete. It is expected that the plants will get complete by June 30,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.

Meanwhile, at Sanjay Nagar hospital, an old oxygen plant lying defunct since last year was made operational. HT on April 24 had highlighted the issue. “The old plant is made operational with one-third of its capacity, as it still requires some equipment which is expected to arrive in another 3-4 weeks,” said Dr Sanjay Teotia, chief medical superintendent of Sanjay Nagar hospital.