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Pvt hospitals in Chandigarh to consider installation of oxygen plants

Private hospitals in Chandigarh sought 15 days to think about installing oxygen plants during a meeting with UT health secretary Yashpal Garg on Friday.

“The response from private hospitals was quite encouraging and they requested for clarification on whether PSA oxygen plants can be installed at the rooftop or within the campus and what permissions will be required from different departments. They also requested for 15 days to think over it,” said Garg.

Only those private hospitals or clinical establishments with a capacity of more than 50 beds can install an oxygen plant . The move came after several states and UTs complained of oxygen shortage in government and private hospitals during the peak of the second Covid wave.

“As per guidelines from the central government, a private hospital should install a PSA oxygen plant if they are catering to more than 50 Covid patients at one time. We have asked large hospitals to reserve at least one-third of their beds as oxygen beds, which can further be connected with ventilators. The UT administration will not provide financial help to them in setting up the plants, but we will help them in training their personnel to use the equipment,” the health secretary said. Garg added that the private hospitals didn’t talk about increasing the bed rates for the Covid-19 treatment.

It was decided that another meeting will be held next month to take the initiative ahead and further encourage the hospitals to set up their own PSA oxygen plants so that there is no issue of shortage in case of any crisis, he added. However, the hospitals have been given six months to set up the oxygen plants.

In addition to the director health and medical superintendent of Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, representatives from 13 private hospitals also attended the meeting. These included Chaitanya Hospital, Eden Critical Care Hospital, Happy Family Hospital, Healing Hospital and Institute of Paramedical Sciences, Kapoor’s Kidney and Urostone Centre, Landmark Hospital, Mukat Hospital + Heat Institute (A unit of City Clinic), Shri Dhanwantry Hospital (Run by Shri Dhanwantry Educational), Kids Clinic, Homeopathic Medical College 26, ARV Orthopaedics Hospital, Indira IVF Hospital Private Limited and Chandigarh City Hospital.

A presentation about the PSA Oxygen technology was given by Dr Manjit Singh, medical officer, GMSH 16, about working of Oxygen Plants and tentative cost for different sizes of PSA plants.

‘Space, finances are concerns’
“Most private hospitals in Chandigarh lack space to set up a plant on their hospital campus. A minimum of five-square meters of vacant space is necessary. We are willing to install the plant if administration helps us by easing some rules”, said HS Sehgal, administrator of Healing Hospital Chandigarh.

“Besides space constraints, hospitals complained of high expenses in setting up the oxygen plants. The price range of installation varies between ₹20 to ₹80 lakh and hospitals were told to choose the plant, as per their capacity and choice of expenses. Since these plants are assets for the hospitals, most of them are willing to set up the facility, if the administration helps out,” said Dinesh Chopra, CEO of Chaitanya Hospital.

Hospitals with less than 50 beds were asked to increase their capacity, so that they can also help out in case of a third Covid wave. Hindustan Times

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