CHANDIGARH: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the oxygen plant at Government Multi Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16 on October 7. The inauguration will be conducted online from Rishikesh AIIMS as part of the launch of over 160 oxygen plants across the country.
The oxygen plant of 500 LPM (Litres Per Minute) capacity at GMSH-16 played a crucial role in meeting oxygen shortage during the second Covid wave. A senior UT official said although the plant had been functional for the past several months, its official inauguration was pending.
He added that Punjab governor-cum-UT administrator Banwari Lal Purohit, mayor Ravi Kant Sharma and others will also inaugurate oxygen plants at PGI, GMCH-32 and Sector 48 hospital.
The UT health department recently submitted an action plan to tackle the situation in the face of a possible third wave of Covid-19.
According to the report, UT administration has upgraded medical infrastructure, including oxygen, to deal with an estimated peak active cases of around 10,000. The report says that the UT health department has availability of 53.8MT medical oxygen against peak requirement of 49.5MT.
UT administration is also pushing for installation of oxygen plants in private hospitals. Recently, the health department held a meeting with private hospitals to set up oxygen generation plants in their hospitals on priority.
A presentation on Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen technology was delivered by Dr Manjit Singh, medical officer, GMSH-16, about working of oxygen plants and tentative cost for different sizes of PSA plants.
To tackle a likely spread of infection among children, Government Multi-specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, has decided to set up a 32-bed dedicated paediatric ICU centre. The Sector-16 hospital already has 20-bed ICU facility for kids. It has eight ventilators and 12 beds with oxygen facility at the hospital’s surgical ward.
