Sixth Oxygen Plant Inaugurated in Chhattisgarh

Sixth Oxygen Plant Inaugurated in Chhattisgarh

The 600 LPM plant will help doctors battle the pandemic in Jagdalpur and more than 600 neighbouring villages.

14 NOVEMBER 2021 | Safira Sahu, Mayor, Jagdalpur inaugurated the Oxygen plant at the Maharani District hospital in Jagdalpur today. The 600 LPM plant has been set up under Oxfam India’s COVID-19 response ‘Mission Sanjeevani’. The Oxygen plant, Oxfam India’s 6th, will cater to the maternity and child health wing, which has currently 58 beds and a 12-bedded Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU). An additional 35 beds are upcoming in the maternity and neonatal care unit, which will be connected to the oxygen plant. The plant will also provide oxygen supply to the newly constructed 6-bedded paediatric ICU. This is Oxfam India’s sixth Oxygen plant to be set up to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are honoured that the Mayor inaugurated Oxfam India’s Oxygen plant in Jagdalpur today. We are working closely with the department of health and welfare in the state. We decided to set up the Oxygen plant here based on the recommendations of Neeraj Kumar Bansod, Director, Health Services. During the pandemic, people were being referred to the Jagdalpur Medical College which was far and the only covid care centre during the second wave but with this Oxygen plant, this hospital can now take care of the needs of some of the most marginalised communities in the region. The plant will also meet the required Oxygen supply need of the maternity and child wing sufficiently and strengthen the neonatal child care unit,” said Amitabh Behar, CEO,  Oxfam India.

“The plant provided by Oxfam India is very useful for a remote place like Bastar. We have seen two waves of covid where lack of oxygen had resulted in death of many people. This plant will serve 7 districts. Although the hospital is established in Bastar district, people from nearby districts also avail the services here, including bordering states of Odisha and Maharashtra. Hence the plant will not only serve the people in the district but all the adjoining places. As expert are speculating that the third wave will affect children more than the adults, this plant become, all the more important since it will providing oxygen to the maternity and child unit of the hospital. I am thankful to Oxfam India for providing the plant to the hospital, which will support not only covid but other oxygen requirement of the hospital,” said Dr Sanjay Prasad, Civil Surgeon and Chief Hospital Superintendent Maharani  District Hospital, Jagdalpur.

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 Chhattisgarh, Oxfam India has provided Oxygen Concentrators (61), BiPAP Machine (6), Semi Fowler Bed with mattresses(110), Multi-Parameter Patient Monitor (8), ventilator (1),Oxygen cylinder (206), Oxygen flow meter with humidifier (245), nasal masks (850), Pulse Oximeter (296), Nebuliser machine (306), BP Machine (104), digital thermometers (385), 1000 PPE kits for medical staffs, over 30,000 masks for frontline workers. Dry ration and community safety kits were provided to 1700 families across the state.

As part of the ASHA programme, Oxfam India has also reached out to 3675 ASHAs/Mitanni in the state and provided them with safety equipment kits . These kits include a thermal gun with batteries, a pulse oximeter with 2 sets of batteries, 5 sets of nasal masks, 100 surgical masks, 2 sets of reusable gloves, 20 sets of disposable gloves, 2 sets of aprons, 200 ml of alcohol-based hand sanitisers,  2 sets of handwashing liquid and 1 kit bag to store all the materials. The kits were designed to ensure safety and protection of the health workers and to support their effort in effective prevention and management of COVID 19 in the field

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-ty Safety kits and almost 15,000 PPE kits for healthcare and frontline workers across India. We have set up three Oxygen plants—Sonepur in Bihar, Tumkur in Karnataka and Mahabubabad in Telangana. 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.”

For more information contact: Abhirr VP, Manager, Media +91 97399 81606

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