Srinagar- Most hospitals in Kashmir have sufficient quantities of oxygen available as the administration has increased the production of the life-saving gas in the Valley, officials said on Wednesday.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Mechanical Engineering Department (MED) has played a proactive role to make the quantity of oxygen sufficiently available to the hospitals associated with Government Medical College, Srinagar and Directorate of Health Services, Kashmir, the officials said.
They said Kashmir is the green spot on the map of India as far as the status of oxygen compared to the rest of the country is concerned.
The officials said the during the first wave of the pandemic, oxygen demand in the hospitals in Kashmir was less, but it increased manifold as the second wave hit the valley.
The MED was providing 8,000 litres per minute (LPM) to the hospitals associated with Director Health Services Kashmir, while oxygen provided to SKIMS Soura and SKIMS Bemina was 4,000 LMP during the same phase, the officials said.
During the second wave of COVID-19, the oxygen demand has increased due to the surge in positive cases. To increase the oxygen production, the department has added 21,000 LPM of oxygen besides increased its oxygen capacity at SKIMS Soura and SKIMS Bemina by 3,250 LPM, they said.
Chief Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Department, Kashmir, Rashid Ahmad Dar said, As of now, our capacity of oxygen production stands at 36,000 LPM which means that the department has increased oxygen supply by three times to the production in first wave.
Dar said the Industries department has also revived another filling plant to its line which now stands at five plants and is supplying near 3,000 oxygen cylinders.
The chief engineer said it is due to these efforts that medical oxygen is sufficiently available in the hospitals across the Kashmir division.
Due to the abundance of oxygen, our hospitals have been able to save lives of patients which has resulted in the decrease in mortality rate, he said.
Dar said as far as the status of oxygen in Kashmir compared to the rest of the country is concerned, the valley is the green spot on the map of India taking the abundance of oxygen in consideration .
He said in the coming days, more oxygen plants will be installed at different hospitals to increase the capacity of the live-saving gas production to 45,000 LPM to be prepared for the prophesied third wave of Covid virus .
The officials said the total potential of oxygen plants installed at Government Medical College and its associated hospitals stood at 6,000 LPM earlier, which now stands at around more than 18,000 LPM. Besides 1,000 to 2,000 LPM oxygen plants have been installed in district hospitals so that COVID-19 patients do not have to suffer for want of oxygen and reduce the shifting of patients to Srinagar hospitals, they added.
They said the overall oxygen capacity built by the department at SMHS hospital has been raised to 5,600 LPM. At Chest Disease hospital, 1,500 LPM plant was setup in the last two days besides 1,000 LPM oxygen plant at JLNM Hospital, they added.
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