HYDERABAD: Nearly 60 hospitals in Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts have been issued show-cause notices for not installing oxygen generation plants on their premises, in accordance with an order passed by the Director of Health two months ago As per the order, all hospitals with more than 200 beds must set up a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) of varying capacities to cater to their oxygen needs, in view of a possible Covid-19 third wave.
The Director of Health had given September 1 as the deadline for the same. A week has passed since the deadline and nearly 28 hospitals in Rangareddy, 21 in Medchal and nine big hospitals in Hyderabad have not complied with the directive yet. “A majority of the hospitals are saying that it is futile to set up oxygen plants as they already have centralised oxygen pipelines linked to large cylinders to meet their needs.
With hospitalised cases of Covid-19 dwindling by the day, they are resisting this directive, despite our routine follow- ups,” informed Venu Gopal, Deputy Extension and Media Officer, DMHO of Medchal- Malkajgiri. Only eight hospitals have installed PSAs in the district. In Rangareddy, nearly 50-60 hospitals are eligible to set up the PSAs. “We have found that only 20 hospitals have complied with the directive. Some hospitals are still in the nascent stages of installation,” said Dr Swaraja Lakshmi, DMHO-Rangareddy. Only seven hospitals in Hyderabad have installed the plant so far.