HSS, Sewa donate oxygen plant to Ocean View facility

– to cut cost to procure oxygen

With the contribution of an oxygen plant by the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in collaboration with Sewa Guyana, the Infectious Diseases Hospital will be able to cut costs on spending to procure oxygen.

At a press conference on Monday, it was revealed that the plant has already been procured but officials are awaiting logistical arrangements to have it airlifted here.
While the exact cost was not divulged, it was mentioned that a plant of this nature would cost in the vicinity of US$150,000 with equivalent sums to have it shipped.
HSS Coordinator Ravi Dev informed that the plant was sourced from India after the Health Ministry indicated the need for such a system.
“The plant has already been sourced. It’s just a matter of getting a flight. It’s in the hands of DHL and it will be flown into Guyana. You can imagine the expense of flying it but at this juncture, we need to ensure that our Infectious Diseases Hospital is supplied with its independent source of oxygen,” Dev noted.
When it arrives, an engineer from India will commission the plant. This new addition will occupy 512 square feet and be capable of supplying 800 litres of oxygen per minute. The calculations show that some 50 patients can be attached simultaneously.
In Guyana, arrangements are being made in the meantime. According to Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, it will significantly cut costs for purchasing oxygen.
“We were anticipating a Delta surge and we were talking about the needs we would have in case such a surge occurs. Earlier in the year when we were contemplating this, one of the areas where we thought we might be challenged was in the area of providing adequate supplies of oxygen. The COVID-19 hospital at Liliendaal, we do have close to 200 beds and we have been buying oxygen for that facility. Our ICU setup there, we have moved it from eight beds to now about 52 beds and therefore, providing constantly the amount of oxygen is a very expensive exercise,” he shared.
Dr Anthony added that once the plant is installed, it will complement the operations at the specialised facility.
“We hope that we will overcome those logistical difficulties and once that happens, that plant would be in Guyana and with the assistance of the Indian engineer, we will be able to get that up and running.”
Both organisations are working in conjunction with the Ministry to help with lifting awareness and collaborating at vaccination events. Some 496,580 KN95 masks; 14,856 hand-sanitisers; 11,150 wipes; 342 gowns and 2248 bottles of liquid soap among other items have also been donated.
Last August, the Health Ministry had requested technical support from PAHO to assess the oxygen supply infrastructure in the health system, to determine measures to scale up distribution of oxygen in the country.
PAHO deployed a team within days to assess current medical oxygen supply capacities and proposed recommendations to improve epidemic response.
A checklist was prepared to gather information on quantitative consumption measurements, including litres of oxygen consumed per week, the number of oxygen points and additional data to measure oxygen consumption and project an increase in demand.
The second component consisted of a nine-day site visit conducted by the team to the 16 most important regional and district hospitals across the ten administrative regions of Guyana, with the primary purpose of assessing the oxygen supply infrastructure within the hospitals, such as the system of distribution and areas where oxygen is required.
In addition, other areas of hospital management were inspected, such as the stability of the electricity supply from the national grid and emergency generators, sterilisation equipment and techniques, water supply, and the availability of qualified and trained technical staff to manage the facilities.