To ease the ongoing medical oxygen crisis which has severely impeded medical treatment to critical Covid patints and emerged as one of the biggest challenges in India’s battle against the second wave, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the setting up of additional oxygen generating plants in 39 hospitals and 855 CHCs to ensure continuous supply of the life-saving fluid.
“During the surge in Covid cases, swiftness of the process is a must. In view of this, officials must ensure unabated supply of oxygen to all hospitals with a capacity of 100 plus beds. Also try to set up oxygen plants in Covid-19- designated private hospitals on behalf of the state government and their expenses will be adjusted in the bills of private health care institutions,” the CM instructed the officials at a high-level meeting in Lucknow on Sunday.
Pursuant to the CM’s order to expedite the work of setting up oxygen plants, units are being set up at 21 new places including District Hospital Fatehpur, District Hospital Ballia, District Combined Hospital Siddharthnagar, MCH Hospital with a 200-bed capacity, District Combined Hospital Balrampur, UHM District Hospital Kanpur Nagar, Dr SPM Hospital Lucknow, District Hospital Mirzapur, Combined Hospital Chakia Chandauli, District Hospital Ghazipur, District Hospital Jaunpur, TB Sapru Hospital Prayagraj, Covid Hospital Bareilly, General Hospital Gorakhpur, Kashiram Hospital Kanpur Nagar, LBRN Hospital Kanpur Road Lucknow, Covid Hospital GB Nagar, District Hospital Sonbhadra and Pandit Deen Dayal Hospital Varanasi.
The CM also issued instructions to set up oxygen producing plants in as many as 855 community health centers (CHCs) across the state, for which an amount of Rs 488 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund has been released. Apart from this, the state government has also asked the Centre to provide 50 oxygen tankers.
Principal Secretary, Medical Education, Alok Kumar said that oxygen plants have been set up at 22 of the total of 52 medical colleges in the state. Besides, oxygen plants were being set up at 18 places including Kanpur, Agra, Jhansi, Jalaun, Banda, Kannauj, Azamgarh, Shahjahanpur Medical College, RMLIMS, Lucknow, Super Specialty Cancer Institute in Lucknow, Autonomous Medical College Basti, Ayodhya, Bahraich, Firozabad, Saharanpur and Ambedkar Nagar. Among these, 10 plants were being set up in collaboration with DRDO.
“All these plants employ a new technology that absorbs nitrogen from atmospheric air to concentrate and extract oxygen for supply to hospitals. Work is also underway to set up oxygen plants in private medical colleges and hospitals,” Kumar further said.