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New health minister Mansukh Mandaviya works to mitigate medical oxygen crisis
This is the first project (two Pressure Swing Adsorption plants in a Gujarat hospital) that the newly appointed Union health minister launched after taking charge on Wednesday, July 7
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday virtually inaugurated two Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants in a Gujarat hospital as part of measures planned to meet the country’s oxygen demand for patients, especially during public health crises.
This is the first project that the newly appointed Union health minister launched after taking charge on Wednesday, July 7.
The plant was set up at Sir Takhtasinhji Hospital, Bhavnagar. Mandaviya also inaugurated two oxygen generation plants of 1,000 litres per minute capacity each, a copper piping network and associated facilities such as a firefighting system and automatic oxygen source changeover system.
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“This facility is dedicated to the people of Bhavnagar. Similar such facilities inaugurated recently will help the country in times of crisis… It is an evidence of sheer cooperation among different stakeholders from both public and private sector that we ramped up our oxygen capacity that was mere 4,000MT (metric tonnes) to more than 12,000MT in a short span of time,” said the health minister during the inauguration.
Mandaviya also mentioned that the government was making an effort to upgrade overall medical infrastructure to meet future challenges.
“We have learnt a lot from the second wave (of the Covid-19 pandemic) such as ramping up oxygen supply, hospital beds and medicines. We have now ensured adequate funds in every district for buying critical care medical requirements in emergency. The Cabinet has recently approved a ₹23,000 crore package for Covid-19 emergency response. We have made adequate provisions for paediatric care in all hospitals to provide the most effective healthcare for children. We are also developing a system of buffer stock at the state and Centre-level that can be used in case of any health crisis,” he said.
