Interruption in oxygen supply averted in public hospitals

We commend the government for taking immediate action to import oxygen from India as the country's major oxygen supplier plant went out of order due to a technical glitch recently. Reportedly, Linde Bangladesh Limited, a multinational company, provides the government hospitals with 90 percent of their daily demand of liquid oxygen, which is 100 tonnes. However, on December 11, the plant, situated in Narayanganj's Rupganj, went out of service following a technical problem. Its fallout could have been disastrous for the hospitals but, thankfully, prompt action by the authorities to bring oxygen from India averted the crisis. Linde Bangladesh is now bringing in life-saving oxygen from India using tankers and delivering it to the hospitals on a temporary basis.

Uninterrupted oxygen supply is extremely crucial during this time of the pandemic, as lives of critical coronavirus patients depend on continuous oxygen supply. According to DGHS officials, the number of critical Covid-19 patients seeking oxygen support at hospitals has been increasing as winter set in. Unfortunately, the majority of our public hospitals and health complexes still do not have a proper oxygen supply system. Only a few district level hospitals have a central oxygen supply system, while others use oxygen cylinders for emergency situation. And there are still many hospitals that have no oxygen supply system at all.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, health experts have been urging the government and the public hospitals to install a centralised oxygen supply system. But only a few of them took any step to do so. While with cylinders a patient can be given oxygen at the maximum rate of six litres per minute, a central oxygen supply system can provide much more oxygen in an uninterrupted manner. That is why it is essential to have such a system in every hospital.

Coming back to the problem of oxygen supply by Linde Bangladesh Limited, we think they have managed the situation quite skilfully for the time being. What they must ensure now is that the supply from India does not get disrupted. They should repair the plant as quickly as possible and start supplying oxygen to our hospitals from their plant. While they do so, the government should also make some alternative arrangements for getting emergency oxygen supply, just to avoid any future crisis.