KOCHI: The demand for medical oxygen in the state more than doubled from around 73MT to 150MT per day since April, but experts said Kerala is well prepared to meet the demand by augmenting production besides arranging supplies from outside.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last week wrote to the prime minister requesting 1,000 tonnes of liquid oxygen supply to meet the state's demand. The Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) is also taking all steps to increase the production of gaseous oxygen and limiting the use of already depleting liquid medical oxygen (LMO).
The LMO production at Inox India Limited, Kanjikode in Palakkad, was increased from 149 metric tonnes per day to 160 metric tonnes.
According to PESO, the average supply of medical oxygen in cylinders to hospitals in Kerala has been 66.46MT in the past eight days. The supply of LMO directly to hospitals is 140.57MT. The average supply of medical oxygen (gaseous and LMO) in the past eight days is 207.04MT.
"Kerala has 45,454 D type (40-60-litre capacity) cylinders and 5,228 B type (10-litre) cylinders in its custody for filling medical oxygen. All district collectors in the state have been advised to seize all industrial oxygen cylinders for hospital purposes and, so far, 2,473 cylinders have been seized," said R Venugopal, deputy chief controller of Peso and nodal officer (medical oxygen monitoring), Kerala and Lakshadweep.
Medical experts said as of now, there is no shortage of medical oxygen in the state. The reason the CM has asked the Centre for more is to stay prepared for a potentially severe situation. "It is a question of arranging medical oxygen at hospitals as per the requirement. The problem was with the logistical support. Now, the situation has come under control. We have sufficient oxygen supply in the state. As the district administrations are taking care of the sourcing and supply of oxygen, things are working out now," said Dr Junaid Rahman, former president of IMA, Kochi.
Presently, the demand for oxygen is rising as more cases are being reported. "Earlier, hospitals refilled oxygen every week. Now, refilling is being done every two days," said Dr Mathews Numpeli, Ernakulam district programme manager, National Health Mission.
Also, hospitals do not have permission to store medical oxygen, he said. Officials have to inform the district war rooms regarding any issue related to oxygen availability, and once validated, oxygen will be supplied to the hospitals. This is to ensure that there is a supply of required oxygen in every hospital across the state.
"If a hospital is allowed to store extra oxygen, then there will be a shortage in other hospitals,” said Dr Mathews. “We are handling the logistics carefully. As the demand rose, there was a shortage of tankers to supply medical oxygen. However, we are managing the situation and ensuring that there is no delay in the logistical part," he added.
Each hospital in the state has a nodal officer who reports to the district administration at least four times a day to update the oxygen requirements. "The nodal officers inform us about the shortage of oxygen and, accordingly, we intervene and send more tankers for refilling," said Dr Akhil Manuel, medical officer, NHM.
Demand rising
The demand for oxygen is rising as more cases are being reported. “Earlier, hospitals refilled oxygen every week. This has to be done every two days now,” said Dr Numpeli.
Steps taken to augment supply
A new Air Separation Unit (ASU) will be commissioned on May 12, said Peso's Venugopal. Peso has approved a private sector ASU plant - Auxillium Products LLP - at Kizhakkanchery village in Vadakkenchery, Palakkad district. This plant can produce 235 litres of high-purity liquid oxygen and 260 cubic metres of high-purity oxygen in cylinders.
Another new private ASU plant has been granted permission at Veli in the capital with a production capacity of 130 cubic metres per hour. Peso has also advised the firm to convert its 20-kilolitre (KL) argon tank into a liquid medical oxygen tank.
A capacity of 33KL LMO will be available at the plant as well. It has taken steps to restart its ASU plant at Vattaparambu in Malappuram district by the end of May. The plant had been closed since 2016.