Ajnala Civil Hospital oxygen generation plant lying non-operational for a year

Following a tragedy that claimed the lives of three patients due to oxygen supply issue at the Jalandhar’s Civil Hospital, an oxygen generation plant was found non-operational at the Ajnala Civil Hospital.

Technically, an oxygen generation plant is called the pressure swing adsorption (PSA), a system that separates gases from a mixture, often air, using pressure differences and the properties of adsorbent materials. It is commonly used to produce high-purity oxygen or nitrogen for various applications, including medical and industrial uses.

The Punjab Health Department has three PSA plants for oxygen generation in the district. Other three PSA plants in Amritsar are at Government Medical College-cum-Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, the Jallianwala Bagh Civil Hospital, and sub-divisional hospital at Baba Bakala.

The PSA plant at the Jallianwala Bagh Civil Hospital is the biggest with a capacity to generate 960 litres of oxygen per minute. The hospital has a 200-bed intensive care unit (ICU).

Notably, all these oxygen generation plants were set up after the Covid-19 when an acute shortage of oxygen for medical purpose was felt in the country.

A state-of-the-art unit has been arranged through the DRDO under the PM CARES Fund at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) costing around Rs 1 crore, the unit has a capacity to generate 1,000 litres of medical oxygen per minute from atmospheric air on the hospital premises on May 31, 2021. Same year on August 16, another oxygen plant with a capacity to produce 1,000 litres of oxygen in one minute was inaugurated at GMCH.

Oxygen cylinders are mainly used in medical and industrial units. Welders use oxygen while cutting steel and iron. This increase in cylinder prices was passed on to consumers by manufacturers and their users.

Apart from the aforementioned government-run units, about five privately owned units are engaged in industrial production of oxygen in the city. After the government intervention during the pandemic period, their owners had doubled plant capacity from 1,000 to 2,000 cylinders per day. The combined manufacturing capacity of the five units in the city is around 7,000 oxygen cylinders per day.

Oxygen is required at every step of manufacturing and maintenance of machines. Goldsmiths require oxygen. It is required for patients during an emergency in hospitals.

Civil Surgeon Dr Kirandeep Kaur said oxygen plant at Ajnala has been lying closed since some unknown persons decamped with its pipes around a year ago. She said a request for its replacement and restoration of the plant has already been made to the head office. She said all PSA units together were generating more than the required limit of oxygen. Major ICUs of the district are at GMCH and at the Jallianwala Bagh Civil Hospital, which have their own oxygen generation plants, she added.