Amid the alarms of an approaching third COVID wave, Indore has buckled up to become a self-sufficient producer of medical oxygen. The motive to achieve this status has aggravated since the advent of the recent wave of COVID-19 in the district, which exposed the lack of supplies, amenities and medical utilities to tackle the pandemic. To ensure this, around 40 hospitals in Indore will set up oxygen generating plants.
Indore aims to produce up to 105 metric tonnes of oxygen
The District Collector informed that around 40 hospitals in the city are making provisions to set up oxygen generation plants. These collectively will be able to produce up to 65 metric tonnes of medical grade oxygen. Another 40 metric tonnes of oxygen will be synthesised at the ASU and Mittal Plant at Pithampur, the Collector added. With this, Indore aims to achieve the potential of facilitating 105 metric tonnes of oxygen, at the emergency hour.
As per reports, the District Collector has constituted a committee to expedite the construction of oxygen plants to mitigate the pressures of another resurgence. All government and private hospitals have been ordained by this body to work fast. As yet, around 6 hospitals have successfully managed to institute their own oxygen generating plants.
Role of the Monitoring Committee
The district monitoring committee will be lead by the District Additional Collector along with the Chief Medical and Health Officer, as a member secretary. Other officials include the IMA Indore President, Satish Joshi, Dr. Sunil Banthia from Nursing Home Associations, Dr. Nishant Khare as well as Dr. Madhu Verma.
These officials have been tasked to seek relevant information from hospital management, to keep tabs on the establishment of oxygen plants. The agency representatives have been directed to install oxygen plants by the hospitals and these will also be pulled up during the monitoring procedure, along with the people from the hospital management.
As per reports, the district committee will convene a weekly meeting at all concerned hospitals to invigilate the oxygen plant progress. The state government will also provide a 50% capital subsidy to set up a private oxygen generation units, to promote the overall agenda.
