J&K to enhance oxygen capacity to 90,000 LPM

Srinagar: With medical experts predicting third Covid wave, the Jammu and Kashmir government has set a target to enhance medical oxygen generation capacity to 90,000 litres per minute (LPM) in its hospitals.

A senior health department official informed that Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha during a recent meeting directed the officials to enhance medical oxygen generation capacity to 90,000 LPM from current 66,000 LPM.

   

The LG in his Independence Day speech had said: “With the hard work and selfless determination of our doctors, health workers and other services, we have ensured that no one in Jammu and Kashmir faces the problem of oxygen beds. In August last year, the oxygen generation capacity in all our hospitals was only 15,000 LPM, which has been increased to 66,000 LPM within 6 months and shall be enhanced to 90,000 LPM in the coming days.”

As per the officials, Jammu and Kashmir under PM Cares fund will receive 32 additional pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants.

The capacity of these 32 plants would be 24,850 litres per minute (LPM). Out of these, 13 will be set up in Kashmir and as many in Jammu division with a capacity of 13,550 LPM and 12,350 LPM respectively.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration had approached the Union Health Ministry, for providing additional PSA plant to the union territory, considering the demand and need to make the oxygen generation facility available in all district hospitals and some major Community Health Centres (CHCs) for tackling

According to an official statement from the administration, the Health and Medical Education Department has taken an initiative to augment the existing oxygen generation capacity in 37 major hospitals of the union territory by way of installation and commissioning of additional 84 medical oxygen generation plants.

In order to be better prepared to tackle the third wave of Covid, the Jammu and Kashmir government has also directed all the private healthcare institutions having more than 50 bed capacities to establish oxygen generation plants within their facility for better patient care.

During the second Covid wave this year, the government faced a number of problems in ensuring medical oxygen supply to Covid-19 patients as a result of which the number of oxygen generation plants were enhanced.

The LG last week at a meeting stated that ‘next 100 days are crucial’ and ordered district-level campaigns to fight COVID.

He instructed the health and information departments to team up and start an extensive COVID 19 awareness campaign at the district level. In his routine meeting, the Governor discussed the ongoing situation of COVID-19 in the Union Territory.

The officials from the COVID Task Force, the Deputy Commissioner, and SSPs were present at the meeting.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

12 − nine =