NEW DELHI: The government in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has set up an oxygen generation plant at Govind Ballabh Pant Hospital on Monday to augment the facility’s oxygen supply capabilities. The plant will cater to 750 beds in the hospital which is a super-speciality tertiary care centre.
The oxygen plant utilises Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology to produce up to 1,050 litres of oxygen per minute. It will serve approximately 750 hospital beds, including those supported by ventilators.
Kanni Wingraja, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Director of Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, UNDP, launched the oxygen plant along with Shoko Noda, Resident Representative, UNDP India, Dr. Anil Agarwal, Medical Director GB Pant Hospital, and other senior officials.
The second wave of Covid-19 necessitated a need to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply for critical care.
In partnership with the state governments, UNDP has set up twelve oxygen generation plants across India, including Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, NCT of Delhi, and Tripura.
Wignaraja also visited the Covid-19 vaccination centre at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital. She interacted with the staff and had a look at the work of Co-WIN, which supports one of the largest vaccination programmes in India.
She also saw a demonstration of the smartphone-based Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network (eVIN) application which manages vaccine supplies and is being successfully utilised to track Covid-19 vaccine logistics.
UNDP has supported the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare by digitizing the supply chain of vaccines and tracking beneficiaries across the states to ensure better access and coverage. UNDP also helped set up a dedicated technical helpline to support the Co-WIN platform. The helpline has responded to over 7,34,000 queries and public grievances related to Co-WIN and Covid-19 since its launch.