O2 plants being installed in over 13 medical colleges, institutes in UP, says officials

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh officials here on Wednesday said a total of 866 beds have been increased in just a span of a week in over 25 state-run medical colleges and 33 private medical colleges that have been operating as Covid hospitals.

In these hospitals, out of 866 beds, 199 are ICU beds. Besides, in the last two months, as many as 2,400 beds have been added. The process was initiated in March with the addition of 488 Isolation Beds.

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To help ease the ongoing crisis of medical oxygen amid a massive spike in Covid cases, Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants are being installed in more than 13 medical colleges and institutes across the state. With this, work is also underway to set up O2 plants at private hospitals as well.

Work is also underway to set up Oxygen producing plants in all such private medical colleges and institutes, which do not have LMO based oxygen plants. The O2 generator plants will be set up from the State Budget.

To provide an incessant supply of medical oxygen to critical covid patients, Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants are being installed in state-run medical colleges in cities of Banda, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Basti, Jalaun and Ayodhya at a rapid pace. These institutions did not have liquid medical oxygen (LMO) plants.

The work to set up PSA medical oxygen generation plants at medical colleges in Ambedkar Nagar, Saharanpur, Firozabad and Badaun with the PM CARES Fund has been accelerated. A letter has been sent to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to approve funds under the PM CARES Fund for setting up plants in these four medical colleges.

To ensure a continuous supply of the life-saving fluid in every city, district and village, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also issued directives to set up oxygen generator plants in over nine state-run medical colleges and institutes, for which funds have been released from the State Disaster Relief Fund.

Oxygen producing plants have already been set up in over 22 state-run and private medical colleges and institutions including 12 state medical colleges like SGPGI, KGMU, RMLIMS, Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Agra, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh Medical University Saifai, Etawah Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida and Super Specialty Pediatric Hospital and Educational Institute, Noida and 8 private medical colleges such as Era Medical College Lucknow, Sri Ramamurthy Medical College Bareilly, Naraina, Kanpur, Rama Medical College Hapur, Subharti Medical College Meerut, Tirthankar Mahavir Medical College Moradabad, BHU Varanasi and AMU, Aligarh.

To ensure smooth, timely and transparent supply of medical oxygen to the covid critical patients in government and private hospitals, an 'Oxygen Monitoring System' - for 24x7 live monitoring of the oxygen supply system across the state was developed on the instructions of CM Yogi by the Rodic Consultants Pvt Ltd in collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Medical Education, Department of Medical Health and Family Welfare, and Department of Transport and Home Affairs.

The monitoring system, having live information on the demand of oxygen by hospitals in various districts, allotment and loading of oxygen in the vehicles, live location of vehicles moving on the highways, and the supply of the oxygen and its utilization has supplied a total of 600 MT of Oxygen till now.

According to Uttar Pradesh Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) Awanish K Awasthi, the digital platform has made it possible to locate vehicles delivering oxygen, along with real-time monitoring and tracking.

An oxygen control room has been set up in Home department to oversee the demand and supply of O2.

Representatives of the company are deployed at the refill station and sufficient numbers of drivers on every oxygen vehicle are ensuring timely delivery.

"A total of 321 tonnes of medical oxygen was supplied yesterday itself which is alone more than the supply in several other states. There has also been an increase in the number of oxygen tankers, as the number has gone up to 84 from 30." Mr Awasthi said.

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