Kauvery Hospital declares complete self-reliance on oxygen supply

Kauvery Hospital, a multi-speciality hospital in Chennai, has taken a proactive step to ensure no shortfall in providing seamless care for patients. It has installed two large Oxygen generation (PSA) units within the premises, as of April 2021. During peak times, the units together (each unit or both) supplied Oxygen for more than 250 COVID-19 patients, fulfilling 60% of the total Oxygen requirements, in a short span of two months since the installation of the new technology. As a leading healthcare chain, the installation of Oxygen generation units is a step towards building a resilient healthcare system with efficient management and round-the-clock availability of critical resources to those who require it.

Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, Executive Director, Kauvery Hospital said, “The foundation for a self-sufficient healthcare system is to have patient-centric norms as a focus, uninterrupted availability of essential healthcare resources and investment in robust infrastructure. Against the background of the COVID crises, it quickly became an important goal of our organisation to streamline operational processes, build preparedness for such adverse circumstances and develop a self-reliant practice to ensure undisturbed Oxygen supply. Since April 2021, we have set up two Oxygen manufacturing plants within our premises that produce up to 96% Medical Grade Oxygen. The supply from these units is more than sufficient for our critical patients and is amply available for other cases, as well.”

The abundant and seamless availability of Medical Grade Oxygen also supports more than five ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) Units and CentriMag devices. This heavy-duty medical equipment is required by patients dependent on heart-lung machines and by-pass machines for open-heart surgery. It pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest and thereby aids recuperation.

“We have been giving a tough fight to COVID-19 over the last few months. The number of cases are gradually declining, however all the necessary infrastructure is still in place to ensure timely testing and effective treatments. We faced oxygen shortage in the state few months ago, but fortunately we were able to overcome the crisis with more oxygen supply from other states and countries. This move by Kauvery Hospital, making them self reliant on in-house oxygen generation, is commendable as it is the need of the hour considering the possibility of a third wave,” said Ma Subramanian, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Tamil Nadu. The News Minute