'Hospitals in many states continue to complain about shortages of oxygen’ | liquid oxygen plant

'Hospitals in many states continue to complain about shortage of oxygen’

12

Oct

'Hospitals in many states continue to complain about shortage of oxygen’

PRAKSHI RAWAT

According to petitions filed by the Union Home Ministry in the Supreme Court India has 2 - 3 times more liquid clinical oxygen accessible in holding tanks of steelmakers than the total need such as 12 States with a high COVID-19 case load.

Hospitals in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and other states continue to suffer from a lack of oxygen patients with relatives of patients calling in distress for cylinders as hospitals ran out of beds ten days after this evaluation.

Almost 16,000 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen plant for medical usage was available in steel factory storage tanks, despite request from 12 states with high caseloads, including Delhi, totaling 4,880 MT.

According to a survey performed by the Delhi government, a patient on an oxygen bed requires 10 l of oxygen each minute, while those in icu (ICUs) require 24 l of oxygen per minute.

India now only has 1,224 medical oxygen tankers with a capacity of 16,732 MT. More cryogenic tankers are indeed being built by the administration, and some state countries are also leasing cryogenic tankers through commercial agreements.

"In addition to the existing supply of liquid oxygen plants available for medical usage in its holding tanks [about 16,000 MT LMO is available]." Since September 2020, the steel industry has provided 1,43,000 MT of LMO. As a result, steel industry LMO supplies climbed from 1000 MT per day to about 2600 MT, according to a court document filed by the Government.

Steel plants employ atmospheric oxygen, but they can also contain small amounts of liquid oxygen for medical purposes. In India, steel companies are the primary sources of industrial and medical oxygen.

Usage of the term "judiciously" is defined

The document also contains Union Health Ministry recommendations on "judicious use of oxygen," which state that out of 100 COVID-19 patients, only three require ICU admission and roughly 17 with "serious disease" will have oxygen beds.

The Ministry of Health has urged the government to protect that “oxygen flow should be kept at a low allowable level to aim for a blood oxygen of 92 % to 94 % for hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” according to the Ministry of Health.

It urged hospitals from using – anti breathing techniques on patients randomly and recommended Involved in integrating Bilevel positive Airway Pressure (BIPAP) over High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) as the latter consumes a lot of oxygen.