Oxygen plants commissioned but problems remain in making them operational

As many as 35% of the 1,222 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants the Centre has sanctioned since October have been commissioned but many of them are not running with pipes needed to supply oxygen to hospital beds yet to be ready in many cases, officials in multiple states said. In some states, hospitals are awaiting equipment to connect the oxygen pipes especially to the Covid designated wards while others are looking for trained manpower to run the plants.

Officials in multiple states said the issues are expected to be resolved by the September end or the first week of October. The installation of the plants acquired renewed urgency after the second Covid-19 wave this summer triggered a shortage of life-saving medical oxygen.

According to the Union health ministry, about 50% of the remaining plants would be operational by September 15. All 1,222 plants are scheduled to be operational by December.

In West Bengal, where 10 of the 49 plants are operational, at least four were not running. The state government has fixed September 15 as a deadline for installing all 49 oxygen plants.

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NC Mandal, the chief medical officer of Bengal’s Howrah district, said the 1,000 litre/minute PSA plant installed there has faced a few technical hiccups, and also there are not enough patients. The PSA plant at Jalpaiguri hospital in north Bengal, installed almost a month ago, was not working for over a week due to some technical snags, said an official.

In Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, a PSA plant, with a capacity of 5,0000 litre/minute, was not running as there are not enough patients. Another officer said that one PSA plant installed at Islampur Subdivisional Hospital is functional but has not been used as the pipeline was being installed.

In Bihar, only 14 of 62 plants were running. At the Nalanda District Hospital, a 1,000-litre per minute PSA plant was commissioned in August. But the work on connecting oxygen to 300 beds was incomplete. The beds include 14 of a special neonatal care unit and 10 in emergency triage and treatment unit. “We expect to complete the oxygen pipeline work in a couple of days,” said Sunil Kumar, civil surgeon, Nalanda.

Bihar is expected to generate 117 metric tonnes of medical oxygen daily and ramp up its storage capacity to 310-kilo litre in anticipation of a possible third Covid-19 wave. Each of the 10 state-run medical colleges will have at least one PSA oxygen generation plant. In all, 121 oxygen plants are being set up, health minister Mangal Pandey has said.

In Uttar Pradesh, the newly installed 1,200 litre per minute oxygen plant at government-run 232-bed Tej Bahadur Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj was being tested. Officially the plant is running.

“The oxygen pipelines have also been laid. This plant will supply oxygen in the next few days,” said the hospital’s chief medical superintendent, Kiran Malik.

The hospital is looking for trained manpower to run oxygen plants around the clock. Malik said they may opt to train their own staff.

Uttar Pradesh has so far commissioned 30% of the 127 PSA plants sanctioned to it.

In Madhya Pradesh, just 18 of 88 plants are running. Several plants are shut as there are no critical Covid patients. RP Patel, the superintendent of Bhopal’s Katju Hospital, said a plant installed there a month back is not operational as there are no critical patients.

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Damoh’s chief medical health officer, Sangeeta Trivedi, said an oxygen plant has ensured that a community health centre in the region has a dedicated oxygen supply for the first time. “We do not have to refer every patient to private hospitals for treatment now,” she said.

Officials said all the 88 PSA plants in Madhya Pradesh will be operational by September end.

Only 10 of the 51 sanctioned plants are operational in Rajasthan. The oxygen plant installed at one of the state’s biggest hospitals, Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh ) Hospital, is running for only a couple of hours daily.

Arvind Gupta, an official at the hospital, said they are running the plant daily for 1-2 hours as there are no Covid patients. “If needed, we would provide oxygen to other hospitals also.” The operationalisation of the plant was delayed as a valve was defective, and had to be replaced, said a person aware of the matter.

As many as 70 PSA plants have been set up in Tamil Nadu under PM Cares Fund and another 72 through donations and corporate social responsibility funding. “Twenty-eight plants have been commissioned so far and installation is ongoing at another 33 sites,” said J Deepak, managing director, Tamil Nadu Medical Service Corporation, which is handling Covid-19 infrastructure and medicines.

In Chennai, which was among the worst hit during both Covid waves, oxygen plants have been commissioned in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH), Institute Of Child Health and Hospital for Children, Government Stanley Hospital, and ESI Hospital.

E Theranirajan, the dean of RGGGH, said a plant has been installed specifically for Covid patients at the hospital. He added it will take another week to make it operational. “Two more oxygen plants, for non-Covid patients, have been made operational through CSR initiatives with a daily production capacity of 0.8 MT each.”