Gurugram: Hospitals asked to share data on oxygen demand
As part of preparing the district oxygen plan, the oxygen management committee on Saturday asked all Covid-19 hospitals to provide details such as the number of beds, their oxygen demands, and the distributors they are getting the life-saving gas from
As part of preparing the district oxygen plan, the oxygen management committee on Saturday asked all Covid-19 hospitals to provide details such as the number of beds, their oxygen demands, and the distributors they are getting the life-saving gas from. Officials said that this will help them prepare an estimate for the amount of oxygen the district needs, and accordingly, augment supply to ensure there is no shortage of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) amid the third wave of the pandemic.
According to health department data, there are 105 Covid-19 hospitals and health care centres in the district.
On January 5, Gurugram deputy commissioner Yash Garg formed a five-member oxygen management committee consisting of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and district administration officials and tasked them with the responsibility of formulating a district oxygen plan containing key information such as the average oxygen requirement of the district, individual requirement of the hospitals, and current availability.
“On Saturday, we circulated an online document to all Covid-19 hospitals in the district seeking information on the number of Covid-19 beds, their oxygen demands, and the distributor they are getting oxygen from. We want to have an updated data so that there is a rough estimate ready, based on which we can make preparations and ensure the district is prepared to deal with any kind of situation,” said Vishram Kumar Meena, additional deputy commissioner, who is also one of the five members of the committee.
Meena said that the oxygen plan has not been updated since June last year.
As per the officials, during the second Covid-19 wave in April-May last year, the city’s daily oxygen requirement was as high as 60 metric tonnes, and currently, the oxygen demand is less than six metric tonnes per day.
According to the data from the district administration, 11 oxygen plants were set up in government health centres and hospitals following the second Covid-19 wave and cumulatively they can produce around 4,150 litres of oxygen per minute.
“The committee has so far identified seven oxygen filling stations in Gurugram alone, besides the ones in Faridabad, Bhiwadi, and Panipat that are also supplying oxygen to hospitals in Gurugram. We are in the process of identifying more such filling stations. The existing oxygen supply is higher than the city’s peak demand during the second Covid-19 wave,” said Siddharth Khandelwal, assistant town planner, MCG, and another member of the committee.
On Saturday, the committee members inspected four oxygen filling stations in Manesar to take stock of the existing oxygen supply and assess ways through which it can be further augmented. They also held a meeting with the five authorised oxygen cylinder distributors in the city.
“We conveyed to the distributors that we will not disrupt their supply system in any manner and would only be helping them with streamlining it and ensuring that the cylinders are supplied in an organised manner. For this, data sharing is being carried out,” said Meena.
