KP lacks oxygen plant despite spending heavily on healthcare

PESHAWAR: There is not a single oxygen plant in the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite the fact that provincial government spends billions of rupees on improving healthcare system.

The health department has set aside billions of rupees to cope with Covid-19 but it has ignored the issue of shortage of oxygen plant, according to doctors.

“Management of seriously-ill Covid-19 patients in the city’s hospitals can be resolved only when we have our own plant. Following death of six Covid-19 patients for want of oxygen at Khyber Teaching Hospital in December last year, installation of plant has assumed significance in view of coronavirus,” they said.

The health experts said that an oxygen plant would cost a few million rupees. “Covid-19 isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. The province desperately needs at least one plant to support patients. It is the basic need of critical patients, who require it for survival,” they said.

The doctors said that all hospitals in the province purchased oxygen from manufacturers located outside the city. Liquid oxygen is first source of oxygen supply in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Installation of plant has assumed significance in view of Covid-19

In mid-eighties, a former administrator of KTH had planned to install Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) not only to meet demand of oxygen for own patients but also to sell to other hospitals. The idea was dropped because of its high cost,” a senior physician said told this scribe.

He said that PSA was one-time investment but it was required to ensure uninterrupted support to the patients requiring mechanical breathing.

Oxygen was the most expensive therapy, he added.

“Oxygen is important component of critical care in ICUs, HDUs, Covid-19 units, chest ward, heart wards etc. The Peshawar’s hospitals are home to over 70 per cent of Covid-19 patients in the province where the government should set up PSA, a permanent source of oxygen supply,” said another physician.

He said that all medical teaching institutions and district headquarters hospitals had accident and emergency departments, operation theatres, medical and surgical wards where serious patients had to stay on oxygen.

“It should be in every hospital or at least in one,” said a senior rheumatologist. He feared that more pandemics would follow and purchase of liquid oxygen from outside vendor was not right option.

“Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to upgrade our system as we have established 17 Covid-19 laboratories in the province. These laboratories can be used in detecting epidemics in future,” he said.

The doctors said that government should learn from the avoidable deaths of patients at KTH and immediately establish one PSA plant in Peshawar for oxygen supply to the hospitals, which were presently getting it from Lahore.

KTH has enhanced its capacity of oxygen storage and its supply to patients with a backup system in place in addition to recruitment of more than 12 dedicated staff for proper management. “We increased number of cylinders. The issue of oxygen shortage has been resolved,” said doctors at the hospital.

However, critical care specialists fear that oxygen deficiency will hamper patients’ care in future. They said that the patients would suffer if they didn’t get PSA for the hospitals as first source of oxygen. Hospitals should always have PSA, they added.

“We spend Rs20 million on purchase of oxygen per year,” the director of one of the teaching hospital said. The MTI purchases oxygen in liquid form which is transported by the companies and filled in large tanks on the premises of the hospitals. The PSA produces on-site oxygen at the facilities.

“During the pandemics, we need high pressure oxygen via pipes, which is possible through PSA plants, available in large and small sizes. It runs for life with maintenance. It will save money consumed on purchase of oxygen,” he said.

A physician said that more than 20 per cent of Covid-19 patients needed oxygen and banked on outsides source. “It entails risks. Oxygen is vital and its interruption can be fatal,” he added.