Chandigarh, October 1: To augment the supply and distribution of Oxygen amid the Covid pandemic, the Punjab Government has set up state and district level task force to ensure that there is no shortfall, and is set to float tenders for installing generation plants and storage tanks in all the three Govt Medical College & Hospitals, with generation facilities at Civil Hospitals in Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
These decisions were announced by an official spokesperson after a virtual Covid review chaired by Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
The estimated requirement for Liquid Medical Oxygen generators and storage facilities at the three GMCs at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot has been estimated at Rs 9.92 crore, and tenders for the same will be issued soon, Medical Education & Research Secretary Dr DK Tiwari informed the meeting.
Health Secretary Hussan Lal said all efforts were being made to ensure adequate and uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen for Covid patients even in the coming weeks. Besides setting up a State-level Task Force under the Department of Industries & Commerce, in collaboration with Transport and Medical Education, district level task force had also been set up under the respective CMO/GMDIC/Drug Inspector across districts.
The daily requirement of Medical Oxygen of Govt & Pvt Health Institutions at present has been estimated at approximately 135 MT. Medical Oxygen procured in the state is about 75 MT and liquid Medical Oxygen available to the state is about 80MT, according to the Health Secretary.
The Health Department has also issued SOPs for optimal utilisation at healthcare facilities and has circulated Guidelines of Niti Aayog for Hospital Management Committee & Monitoring Teams.