Process to convert industrial oxygen cylinders for medical use on
At a time when oxygen therapy is used as a major treatment intervention for patients with severe Covid-19 infection in the country, India’s Government hospitals — run by the States and the Centre — are short of nearly 75,000 medical oxygen cylinders.
It is against this backdrop that the Government has undertaken a massive exercise of converting industrial oxygen cylinders for medical use. In fact, recently, the Government allowed manufacturers of industrial oxygen to produce the gas for medical use also, a move aimed at ensuring uninterrupted supply of materials that are required for treatment of people with severe symptoms of Covid-19.
And the good part is that barring seven States and Union Territories, all others have a surplus of industrial oxygen cylinders.
Against a requirement of about 1.20 lakh medical oxygen cylinders, the Government hospitals have just around 45,000 cylinders.
But as per the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as on April 25, 2020, put together India has 3,00,581 Type D industrial cylinders of which 46,282 cylinders are needed to be diverted for medical use to meet the current need.
The Petroleum and Safety Organisation (PESO) has written to its nodal officers to undertake necessary measures for the conversion of industrial oxygen cylinders into medical ones. Since Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur besides Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli face deficiency in industrial oxygen cylinders, they will get these from Assam and Gujarat. The needs of UP, Bihar and Chhattisgarh will be met from the Central pool of 800 cylinders.
As per letter written on April 18, 2020 by Vandana Gurnani, Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry, there are about 165 Covid-19 health facilities having cryogenic tanks for storage of medical oxygen and 38 Covid-health facilities with own oxygen generation plant.
Covid health centres need to have beds with assured oxygen support and similarly dedicated Covid hospitals beds will need to have fully equipped ICU, ventilators and beds with assured oxygen supply.
According to the WHO, oxygen therapy is recommended for all severe and critical Covid-19 patients. Majority of people with Covid-19 have mild illness (40 per cent) or moderate illness (40 per cent), but about 15 per cent of them have severe illness requiring oxygen therapy. Five per cent are critically ill requiring intensive care unit (ICU) treatment.
In addition, most critically ill Covid-19 patients will require mechanical ventilation.
“For these reasons, Covid-19 treatment healthcare facilities should be equipped with pulse oximeters, functioning oxygen systems including single-use oxygen delivery interfaces, as per the WHO.
The Government has said that industrial gas manufacturers will be given licence to produce medical-grade oxygen within 24 hours of applying for one if they undertake to produce it as per the prescribed standards.