Chandigarh to conduct oxygen audit of government hospitals

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 15

To prevent potential misuse and ensure optimum use of available oxygen, the UT Administration has decided to carry out an oxygen audit of the government hospitals as well as the mini-Covid care centres in the city. The authorities have already started the audit of oxygen cylinders procured by the private hospitals from the UT quota.

With a surge in Covid-19 cases, the demand for medical oxygen has increased. The Administration has decided to carry out an audit of oxygen after receiving reports of its misuse.

The UT Administration has reduced the refundable amount for the B-Type cylinder to Rs10,000 while for the D-Type cylinder, it will remain Rs25,000 for the time being.

Yashpal Garg, nodal officer for management of oxygen supply in UT, said they decided to include the government hospitals and mini-Covid care centres in the audit being carried out at private hospitals for optimal utilisation of the life-saving gas. The private hospitals had already been directed to provide the number of oxygen cylinders procured by them from April 1 to May 10 vis-à-vis the bed capacity.

The Central Government has fixed UT’s daily quota of medical oxygen at 20 metric tonne (MT), to be utilised for the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, Government Multi-Speciality Hospital, Sector 16, and the Covid hospital in Sector 48. Private hospitals are also being catered to from this quota.

Oxygen management

Considering incidents of death in some hospitals in other parts of the country either due to the delay in supply of oxygen or a dip in oxygen pressure, the Administration has decided that while increasing beds in the hospital, especially the ICU ones, the aspect of oxygen supply and maintenance of its pressure needs to be taken into account. Also, there should be a proper system of de-icing vaporisers. A permanent arrangement such as sprinklers/showers, etc, should be put in place immediately. Bypass for vaporisers will have to be provided so that these can be used alternatively to avoid any incident due to possible choking.

Staff deployed on duty of oxygen supply should be immediately provided gasman kits. All oxygen points to be got checked from technician to ensure there is no leakage and these are properly closed after use.

11 E-permits for cylinders issued

Till 7 pm on Saturday, the UT Administration received a total of 12 online applications for oxygen cylinder of which 11 were approved. One was rejected, as the application was devoid of prescription from a doctor. The Administration has started issuing online e-permits for procurement of oxygen cylinders at home to patients who have a prescription from a doctor.

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