Oxfam India’s Third Oxygen Plant Inaugurated in Mahabubabad, Telangana
- By Abhirr VP
- 07 Oct, 2021
The 600 LPM plant will cater to nearly 500 villages and towns in Mahabubabad and the neighbouring districts
7 Oct, 2021: Satyavathi Rathod, the Minister of Scheduled Tribal, Women and Child Welfare, Telangana inaugurated the oxygen plant at the Mahabubabad Area Government Hospital in Mahabubabad district on 7 October, 2021. The 600 LPM plant, set up under Oxfam India’s COVID-19 response ‘Mission Sanjeevani’ at the 181-bedded government hospital will cater to people from 500 villages and towns (from 16 mandals of the district and three neighbouring districts). These towns and villages have a high population of Adivasi (42%) and Dalit (16%) households.
Member of Parliament Kavitha Maloth, Member of Legislative Assembly Banoth Shankar Nayak, former District Collector VP Gautham and Satya Prakash Mishra, Director (Operations) from Oxfam India were also present on the occasion.
The plant will be of immense help to the hospital, which during the second wave couldn’t meet the demand for oxygen. B. Venkataramulu, Medical Superintendent, says, “We were unable to meet the requirements of the patients with cylinders and concentrators. Moreover, there were no oxygen plants in Mahabubabad and we had to rely on neighbouring Khammam for the supplies. The plant within the hospital is surely going to help the patients immensely.”
The hospital expanded during the second wave. Until 2020 they had 10 isolation beds and 2 ICU beds but during the second wave it built an isolation ward with 70 beds for COVID-19 patients. The hospital sees a daily footfall of about 600-800 patients. The request to set up the Oxygen plant came from the former District Collector VP Gautham in May this year, at the time the country was reeling under severe oxygen crisis.
Mission Sanjeevani, our COVID-19 Response 2.0, has focussed on strengthening the public health system in 16 states since the second wave swept across the country in April this year. In Telangana, Oxfam India has provided Oxygen Concentrators (51), BiPAP Machine (4), Hospital Beds (34), mattresses (38), Multi-Parameter Patient Monitor (4), Oxygen cylinder (34), Oxygen flow meter with humidifier (64), nasal masks (176), Oximeter (58), Nebuliser machine (58), BP Machine (24), digital thermometers (48), Infrared Thermometer (30) and over 50,000 masks for frontline workers. Dry ration and safety kits were provided to 900 families across the state. During the first phase of our COVID response in 2020-21, Oxfam India provided dry ration and safety kit to 2500 families in Hyderabad and Gadwal as well as to 500 families during the floods.
Oxfam India has been on the ground since March 2020 in 16 states. Through our COVID-19 response we have given Rs 2.96 Crore as direct cash transfer to 9481 vulnerable households. We have reached over 5.30 lakh people with one month’s supply of dry ration. Through ‘Mission Sanjeevani’ (since April this year) we have provided critical lifesaving equipment and diagnostic equipment support such as oxygen cylinders (over 1000), concentrators (over 300), digital thermometers (almost 2000), oximeters (over 1600) along with 20,000 COVID testing kits, over 85,000 Community Safety kits and almost 15,000 PPE kits for healthcare and frontline workers. We have set up two Oxygen plants—Sonepur, Bihar and Tumkur, Karnataka. We have reached 25000 ASHA workers with training and safety kit in 8 states.
For Oxfam India, the primary focus in the second wave is health. Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said: “We are reaching out to public healthcare institutions, district administrations and COVID Care Centres with medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators, patient monitoring systems, oximeters, oxygen nasal masks, and thermometers along with PPE kits and safety kits for frontline health workers.”
About Oxfam India
Oxfam India is a movement of people working to end discrimination and create a free and just society. We work to ensure that Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, and women and girls have safe violence-free lives with freedom to speak their mind, equal opportunities to realize their rights, and a discrimination-free future.
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