Need more liquid oxygen storage facility in Noida, say health officials

Noida: While Gautam Budh Nagar is now able to meet its oxygen demand amid a dip in Covid-19 cases, health officials have emphasised on increasing the storage facilities of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in the district, keeping in mind any possibility of a third wave

Noida: While Gautam Budh Nagar is now able to meet its oxygen demand amid a dip in Covid-19 cases, health officials have emphasised on increasing the storage facilities of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in the district, keeping in mind any possibility of a third wave.

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According to the officials, the district needs to reduce its dependency on oxygen cylinders and focus more on LMO as it is “logistically and medically a better option”. They also said that some new storage tankers for LMO are being planned in the district and new PSA (pressure swing adsorption) plants or oxygen generating plants are being installed.

“Currently, the demand for medical oxygen in the district is roughly between 80 to 85 metric tonnes (MT), while the total storage capacity, including LMO plants and all the cylinders, is around 125 MT. We need to enhance the LMO facilities. We are working on it,” said Dr Sweta Khurana, nodal officer for medical oxygen, GB Nagar.

At present, the district has 113 MT of LMO holding facilities across 13 private and public hospitals, the officials said.

“We are working to increase the LMO tanker storage capacity keeping the future emergencies and likely third Covid wave in mind. Also, we aim to reduce our dependency on oxygen cylinders as LMO tankers are better option logistically and medically as they have better pressure and can be available on time, while cylinders are better for home-isolated patients,” Khurana added.

According to the GB Nagar chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Deepak Ohri, oxygen from LMO plant is cleaner as compared to the oxygen cylinders. “An LMO plant stores oxygen in fluid form and there is assurance of its purity while the purity of oxygen depends on the condition of cylinders which often are not cleaned properly. There are high chances of black fungus and other bacterial infections in cylinders especially when they are stored in high humid areas. Besides, an LMO plant stores more oxygen in lesser space,” said Ohri.

He further said that work will soon begin on installing new oxygen generating plants and LMO storage tankers in community health centres at Jewar, Bhangel, Badalpur and Dadha.