NEW DELHI: A government committee under the national panel for implementation of minimum standards in hospitals across India has suggested making it mandatory for all private hospitals with 50 or more beds to establish at least mini oxygen plants.
The committee, whose suggestions were presented in the National Council for Clinical Establishments recently, has also recommended converting one third of all hospital beds into oxygen-supported beds. The Central Clinical Establishment Act, 2011, aimed at regulating private hospitals across India, has so far been adopted by 11 states and 6 Union Territories, while various states have their own variations of the act.
The suggestions on mandatory oxygen plants follow a mega oxygen crisis in India during the height of the second Covid wave, when the demand for medical oxygen had more than tripled and reached nearly 10,000 MT everyday. Taking lessons from the crisis and in anticipation of a future wave of the pandemic, the Centre is already supporting states in establishing PSA oxygen plants in all district hospitals in the country.
In its report, the NCCE sub-committee has said it was agreed that the primary focus should be to ensure availability of oxygen as per requirement for all the services envisaged to be provided by the hospital. At least one third of the total number of beds should be oxygen beds, said the panel, and at least 48 hours, preferably 72 hours, of oxygen of the total calculated requirement of the hospital should be available at any given time, as back-up.
It has said that while the mini oxygen plants may be mandatory for new hospitals, for the existing hospitals having more than 50 beds, a time period of six months to one year may be given for compliance to the condition of installation.
“After the mega-crisis that the country faced in April-May this year, it will be good if the issue of a robust oxygen supply irrespective of the pandemic condition is taken up seriously by states,” Mira Shiva, member of the NCCE, said.
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The national council also endorsed that online health aggregators should be reigned in, underlining that there is a need to come up with rules to regulate them. Also, it has said, online lab service aggregators and service providers should have registration numbers.
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