At a time when the hospitals are scrambling to ensure a steady supply of medical oxygen to the COVID19 patients undergoing treatment on their premises, the oxygen plants at the KIMS Saveera Hospital have saved the day for its doctors.
The KIMS Saveera, which has 50 COVID-19 beds under the Aarogyasri Network Hospitals of the State, with 16 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, 16 oxygen-supported beds, and the rest normal ones, has an in-house oxygen generation capacity of over 300 litres a minute from the two plants installed on its premises. It has saved the hospital from the pricing and transport blues of the bulk oxygen carriers.
Semi-bulk cylinders on standby
“We installed a small plant of 100 litre capacity in December 2016. The grim situation pertaining to the oxygendemand during the first wave of the pandemic last year prompted us to install another plant which produces 200 litres of oxygen per minute. We also have a contract for semi-bulk cylinders (canisters) which are equivalent to 50 normal bulk oxygen cylinders (7.1 cumts.) as a standby,” KIMS Saveera Managing Director Kishore Reddy told The Hindu.
This is one of the very few such plants installed either in government or private hospitals in Andhra Pradesh, he claimed. “We have installed these plants at a cost of ₹80 lakh, anticipating the pricing or logistic problems now the entire country is facing,” Mr. Reddy said.
Monitoring the amount of consumption, leakages at several places, wastage, and other issues consumes a lot of my time, said Bismillah, the technical person in charge of the oxygen supply to the nearly 200 patients on any given day in all types of beds.
“During the non-COVID days, the two plants that are connected to a single grid are enough to meet the requirement of the hospital, but canisters help serve more patients,” he explained.
