551 Oxygen-Generation Plants To Be Installed in Health Facilities Through PM-CARES Amid Supply Crisis

The PM CARES Fund has given in-principle approval for the allocation of funds for the installation of 551 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country, according to a government note on Sunday.

It said the move was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “direction of boosting the availability of oxygen to hospitals”. Sunday’s announcement came a day after the Union government decided to waive basic customs duty on the import of Covid-19 vaccines for three months.

It also decided to waive the basic customs duty and health cess on the import of medical oxygen and connected equipment for a period of three months with immediate effect.

These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states/Union Territories. The procurement will be done through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The PM has directed that these plants should be made functional as soon as possible and added that they will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level.

Home minister Amit Shah praised the decision.

Defense minister Rajnath Singh also took to Twitter to laud the government’s decision.

In its press note, the government said: “The PM CARES Fund had earlier this year allocated Rs 201.58 crores for installation of additional 162 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country.”

The basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen generation plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility, it added.

“Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day to day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district…Such a system will go a long way in ensuring that Government hospitals in the districts do not face sudden disruption of oxygen supplies and have access to adequate uninterrupted oxygen supply to manage the COVID-19 patients and other patients needing such support.”

Complaints against the unavailability of beds and medical oxygen, a life-saving resource for critical Covid-19 patients, have poured in from different states with the onset of the brutal second wave, while the government has stressed that there is a need for everyone to pull in all available resources and work together as a unit to defeat the pandemic.

In the wake of the ongoing crisis, it has emerged that transport bottlenecks are a big hurdle in supplying medical oxygen to hospitals. Media reports have pointed out that country didn’t have enough cryogenic tankers for round-the-clock transport of medical oxygen which is prepared in liquid form and then converted to gas by distributors who make supplies to hospitals.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has begun ferrying empty oxygen containers to filling stations. Transportation of liquid oxygen on flights is not allowed because it’s risky.

Several Covid-19 patients are found to have low oxygen levels in their blood, according to experts. They say this could happen even in asymptomatic patients and such a condition might indicate that a patient needs medical attention. In the unsparing second wave that is battering India, more cases of breathlessness have been witnessed than in the previous one, raising the requirement of supplemental oxygen in the country.

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