BENGALURU/BELAGAVI/BAGALKOT/KALABURAGI: Even as the state government is on alert over the increasing number of Covid cases, Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) plants that generate medical grade oxygen to treat critical Covid patients are not working in different parts of the state.
Despite spending at least Rs 1 crore on each unit about 3-4 years ago, when the pandemic was at its peak, they are now in a sad state of disrepair, lying unused in most government hospitals. The state has 50 such units and the total cost spent on it was over Rs 150 crore.
A medical practitioner, requesting anonymity, said, “You need proper teams to maintain them. But there has been no maintenance for the last two years.’’Health department sources said, “These plants were set up during the pandemic to ensure that hospitals become fully self-sufficient in medical oxygen generation. The idea was to generate enough medical oxygen to meet the needs of hospitals without burdening the grid.”
They said, “But there is a problem with human resources, especially the technical and paramedical staff, across the health delivery system. During peak Covid, the state government recruited paramedical staff in large numbers, but removed them when the number of cases started coming down and none has been maintained since.”
Venkatesh Nayak, Director, of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Delhi who obtained information through an RTI from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, told The New Indian Express, “Studies have revealed that the oxygen PSA plants are not always in a proper functional condition. The government must publish real-time data about the preparedness of these oxygen generation facilities in all hospitals, particularly now when there is a scare of the new COVID-19 variant JN.1 spreading rapidly. The transactions of the Prime Minister Cares Fund are most opaque of all such public charitable trusts because the government has refused to bring the fund under RTI which has been challenged.”
When contacted, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil told The New Indian Express, “I had a video conference with our officers two days ago on the same issue. I asked them for a status report on the plants to find out if they are functioning effectively. Our interest is to see that they are functional and we will see to it that they are all perfectly operational.’’
Top sources in the Health Department claimed that oxygen plants set up in Belagavi, Bagalkot and Kalaburagi districts are functional and can be put to effective use if the situation arises. However, when asked if they can demonstrate the units’ effective functioning on Monday, the authorities said they can do it only on Tuesday.
(With inputs from Sunil Patil, Ramakrishna Badseshi and Firoz Rozindar)