India faced a major oxygen shortage during the second Covid wave earlier this year.
Amid the construction of over 1,500 oxygen plants across India that could support more than four lakh hospital beds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reviewed the progress of augmentation and availability of the gas across the country. The facilities are coming up in all states and districts with contributions from various sources such as ministries and public sector units, apart from PM CARES.
Officials briefed PM Modi about the progress of the installation of Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Oxygen plants, a release from the Prime Minister's Office said today.
"Once all PSA Oxygen plants coming up through PM CARES would be functional, they would support more than four lakh oxygenated beds," the Prime Minister was informed, the release said.
He instructed the officials to ensure that these plants are made functional at the earliest and to work closely with the state governments for the same.
The meeting was held a day after the Union Cabinet approved the Rs 23,123 crore India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package: Phase II. It has a provision to install 1,050 liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with medical gas pipeline system. It aims at supporting at least one such unit per district.
Oxygen was a major resource whose acute short supply had a devastating effect on the country's medical infrastructure when the deadly second Covid wave swept through India since early this year.
India had to resort to receiving oxygen in the form of aid from several countries at the peak of the crisis.
The Prime Minister today asked officials to ensure adequate training of hospital staff on the operation and maintenance of oxygen plants. He also directed officials to ensure that each district has trained personnel available, the PMO's release said.
Officials informed him that there is a training module prepared by experts and they were looking to train around 8000 people across the country.
He advocated the use of advanced technologies like Internet of Things to track performances and the functioning of such plants at a local and national level.
A pilot was being carried out on those lines, he was informed.