Madurai
Government Hospitals in Madurai are increasing their oxygen generation capacity as oxygen shortage is reported across the country.
The district administration, with the contribution from private organisations as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility, has made arrangements to set up oxygen generators at Government Rajaji Hospital, Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine at Thoppur, Government Hospitals at Melur, Vadipatti and Tirumangalam.
Currently, the preliminary works for setting up the oxygen generator at the Trauma Care Centre block of the GRH is under way. M. Kalyana Sundaram, Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Madurai Medical College, said that three oxygen generators are proposed to be installed in the hospital.
He explained that these generators will use pressure swing absorption technology, where the atmospheric oxygen will be utilised to produce medical oxygen.
The three plants will have the following capacities: 1,000 litres per minute (LPM), 500 lpm and 250 lpm.
The GRH has an oxygen plant that can store up to 26 kilo litres of liquid oxygen.
“When the COVID-19 positive cases were at peak, there was also a surge in the oxygen requirement at the hospital. Liquid oxygen was brought from Kerala and other states to meet the requirement,” he said.
But, setting up an oxygen generator will address the issue as oxygen can be easily generated using atmospheric oxygen. It is more cost effective as compared to using liquid oxygen, he added.
S. Gandhimathinathan, Resident Medical Officer of Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine, said that an oxygen generator with a capacity of 500 lpm will be set up at the hospital.
“This will be highly useful even after the end of the pandemic to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis and other infectious diseases,” he added.
Similarly, work is under way to set up oxygen generators at Government Hospitals in Melur, Tirumangalam and Vadipatti.
