PUDUCHERRY: The Puducherry government has sprung into action to ramp up the health infrastructure on a war footing and enhance the oxygen beds within the next 15 days.
With 1,250 more beds, the total number of those with oxygen will go up to around 2,800 in government hospitals and private medical colleges by June, health secretary Dr T Arun told The New Indian Express.
The development comes at a time when the existing infrastructure in Puducherry and Karaikal region is under tremendous amount of stress to cope up with the increasing number of Covid cases and fatalities.
In Puducherry alone, around 1,504 patients are on oxygen beds and 196 are on ventilator. In Karaikal, 87 are on oxygen and 13 on ventilator, according to the information on Covid dashboard.
There are no ventilator beds vacant and very few oxygen beds available in private hospitals. In state-run JIPMER, IGMCRI and government general hospitals, all oxygen and ventilator beds are occupied.
Meanwhile in IGMCRI, the oxygen bed capacity is being enhanced from present 320 to 600, said Dr Arun. The hospitals is also installing an additional liquid oxygen storage tank to enhance the storage capacity to 16 kilo litres. The facility will become operational after oxygen pipes are laid from the tank to the wards and oxygen flow metres are fixed.
The hospital is getting oxygen from Inox Oxygen plant at Puducherry with a daily allocation 40 metric tonnes. The plant can generate 82 metric tonnes and also supplies oxygen to the other hospitals in the union territory.
Former CM V Narayanasamy had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking priority to the oxygen requirement of Puducherry before supplying to other states.
JIPMER is also enhancing its oxygens beds to 400 and is trying to expand its oxygen storage by establishing an additional 20 kilometre capacity tank.
Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen generators and ventilators, which were procured under PM-care funds of Rs 4 crores by the Puducherry administration some months back, have been taken up for installation now. The PSA generator of 700 Litres per minute (LPM) have been installed in Government General Hospital, where the oxygen beds are being increased to 165 beds.
In Government Hospital for Chest diseases, Gorimedu, 146 oxygen beds will be made available after installation of PSA oxygen generator of 100 LPM. Similarly, 46 beds in Mahatma Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences in Gorimedu and 30 beds in Community Health Centre, Karikalampakkam, will be available respectively after the installation of the PSA generators of 100 LPM each. The work has been taken up along with laying of pipelines for carrying the oxygen to the beds.
In Karaikal GH, the oxygen beds are being increased to 335 from present 98 by establishing a PSA generator of 500 LPM. In Yanam and Mahe GH, the oxygen generators have been installed and at present there is no scarcity of oxygen beds.
The private medical college have been asked to enhance the oxygen beds by another 100 to 150 in their respective hospitals.
Meanwhile, Puducherry has received 90 D type oxygen cylinders, 420 Remedisivir vials and 2,500 covid testing kits from the central government on Tuesday.
The enhanced number of ventilators have not met the demand since February last year in all government hospitals of the UT.
The shortage of anaesthesiologists is proving to be another challenge for the UT.
According to Dr Udayshankar, Director of IGMCRI, the hospital had advertised for 12 positions, but even after a month has passed, these vacancies are yet to be filled up. Besides, some of the ventilator will have to be kept in reserve as some of the existing ones would have developed a snag since these are running without a break, he said.