Helping hospitals install centralised oxygen supply systems
We sincerely appreciate the hard work of a group of 14 Buet alumni who have been helping hospitals install central oxygen supply systems for the last three months. Ideally, all public and private hospitals should have centralised oxygen supply systems. However, in reality, only a few of them have it and the rest use oxygen cylinders to support the critically ill patients. Although most hospitals across the country have been facing this issue, it was only exposed when they were struggling to ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply for critically ill coronavirus patients who were suffering from respiratory distress. During the last few months, many patients with breathing difficulties died without getting the much-needed oxygen support at hospitals.
Amid such a situation, this group of engineers, architects and planners, from Buet's graduating class of 2012, formed the group Projotne Canvas and started their work to improve our healthcare system. They used their technical skills to develop small centralised oxygen supply systems and installed them in nine public and private hospitals at district and upazila levels. And they plan to continue their work. The hospitals where the systems were installed now have the capacity to support around 34 critical Covid-19 patients with oxygen at a time.
It is amazing what our young professionals can do if they get only a little support from society. While for their first project at Chattogram Field Hospital the team had to collect funds from their batchmates, after the successful completion of the project, some donors came forward to finance them. While each of the projects would cost around Tk 25 lakh if commercially installed, they did it at a cost of Tk 5-10 lakh, without technical cost.
We urge the government as well as other donor agencies to come forward and support the team financially as they have been working for a noble cause. With central oxygen support systems, the hospitals will not only be able to ensure oxygen support for the Covid-19 patients, but other patients needing oxygen support will also benefit from this arrangement.
We also hope that our young professionals will be encouraged by this team's work and come forward with their own expertise to improve the country's overall healthcare system.
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