Only 1 of 3 oxygen plants working at Ldh Civil Hospital

Only one of the three oxygen plants is currently operational at the Ludhiana Civil Hospital, with one of these never put to use since the installation during the coronavirus pandemic period.

Moreover, the private supplier who provides oxygen cylinders as a stopgap arrangement to the health facility has not been paid his dues over a year and a half, according to sources.

A source said the hospital restarted purchasing oxygen cylinders from a private supplier in the wake of the Jalandhar tragedy, where three patients died after the supply of the life-saving gas was disrupted for 30 minutes due to a snag in the plant.

However, the hospital authorities said the only operational plant was enough to meet the oxygen demand in the hospital and they started purchasing oxygen cylinders as a back-up plan to meet any emergency.

According to sources, the oxygen demand is set to rise due as an intensive care unit has also been opened at the hospital.

Currently, over a thousand patients daily visit the facility, which also houses a Mother and Child Hospital, with both having a combined strength of 300 beds.

The unit using the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology and having a capacity to generate 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute is operational.

The PSA plant with the capacity of generating 700 litres of oxygen per minute had developed a snag a month ago, which is yet to be fixed. The unit having the capacity to generate liquid medical oxygen, a much advanced version of the two other plants, has never been used since its installation during the Covid lockdown period.

It has the capacity to produce 10 kilo litre of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) per day.

The private oxygen supplier said he continued to provide the life-saving gas to the hospital on humane grounds.

“Oxygen is essential for patients, so on humane grounds, I am continuing with the supply, but for how long I can continue like this? With an ICU made operational recently at the hospital, demand is bound to increase,” he said.

Gagandeep of Weltuch Equipments, said he supplied oxygen to the hospital during the Covid period but he had not been paid his dues, giving up hope of getting the payment.

‘Enough to meet demand’

Civil Surgeon Dr Ramandeep Kaur said the LMO plant was never made operational as some formalities were pending.

“Tenders for the supply of oxygen were floated recently. We are working on it. One plant is temporarily out of service and one is functional, which is sufficient for the entire hospital. As a precautionary measure, we have started purchasing oxygen cylinders as a as back-up plan,” she said.