Oxygen storage plants to be set up at the hospitals in Visakhapatnam

The lack of sufficient oxygen at many hospitals has caused the death of many Covid-19 patients. Visakhapatnam District Collector, V Vinay Chand IAS, has told District Industries Centre, General Manager Ramalinga Raju to identify the oxygen storage plants which are immediately available for the hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. On Tuesday, Mr. Vinay Chand held a conference reviewing the Covid-19 pandemic status in the city.

The Central Government had sought proposals for setting up of oxygen storage plants at government hospitals including King George Hospital (KGH), Visakha Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Chest Hospital, ENT Hospital, Psychiatry, Regional Eye Hospital, Anakapalle Hospital, Narsipatnam, Araku, Paderu, Gayatri, Gitam, and NRI Medical Colleges in the Visakhapatnam District.

The Andhra Pradesh Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC), EE, DA Naidu, was directed to work on setting up of the oxygen plants at the identified hospitals.

Specific instructions were given to shift the drug materials, stored at the Psychiatry Hospital to the adjacent building so that the space which has an oxygen supply connection can be used for the oxygen plant. One oxygen plant will be set up for the hospitals in the Health City.

The Collector also told the Health Officials to visit all the private hospitals treating the Covid-19 patients every morning and update on the number of vacant beds. The Covid-19 Special Officers were asked about the available Covid-19 safety material including oxygen masks, gloves, N95 masks, PPE kits, NIV masks, surgical masks and other requirements on a daily basis.

VIMS Director, Satya Varaprasad, has been directed to take appropriate steps to set up 650 beds in VIMS by next week.