Pakistan gets eight medical oxygen plants from KSA

KARACHI: As many as eight medical oxygen generation plants reached Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore through a chartered flight from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday, federal health officials said, adding they would initially be installed at secondary-care health facilities in the remote areas of Northern Pakistan.

“We have received 8 medical oxygen generation plants from (Kingdom of) Saudi Arabia. Each oxygen plant is capable of supporting 50 oxygenated beds at a health facility. They would be used to treat Covid-19 patients at small and medium size health facilities in the country,” an official of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) told The News on Friday.

The official maintained that Saudi Arabia has assured donating 18 medical oxygen generation plants, of which 8 arrived on Friday, while the remaining would reach Pakistan within a few days.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (commonly known as Global Fund) has also agreed to provide 36 medical oxygen generation plants, the official said while adding that these plants would also reach Pakistan shortly and would be used to meet the oxygen needs for Covid-19 patients at District Headquarter (DHQ) hospitals.

“We have prepared a comprehensive plan to install these small medical oxygen plants at healthcare facilities which lack facilities of piped oxygen while transporting oxygen cylinders to them is also an uphill task,” the NHS official said, adding that there are dozens of district and tehsil hospitals in the country, which lack piped oxygen.

He maintained that in addition to these 54 medical oxygen plants from the KSA and Global Fund, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is also procuring such plants from its own resources and added that they would be provided to federally-administered areas and provinces to equip their hospitals.

“They can also be used to fill oxygen cylinders benefiting, both public and private health facilities,” the official added.

The NHS official said a committee of Director Generals of health from all the provinces and federal health officials is working closely to equip secondary-care hospitals with medical oxygen generation plants and it is expected that with their installation at the DHQ and tehsil hospitals, the load of Covid-19 patients on tertiary-care hospitals in the major cities would reduce to a large extent.