Gujarat: More hospitals installing oxygen tanks

AHMEDABAD: To address the manifold rise in demand for medical oxygen in state hospitals, nearly a dozen Covid-19 designated hospitals across Gujarat have created oxygen storage capacities since April this year.
State hospitals treating Covid-19 patients were recently hit by a medical oxygen supply crunch. In Ahmedabad, several mid- and small-scale hospitals scurried for the life-giving gas that now forms the backbone of Covid-19 treatment.
INOX Air Products Pvt Ltd, the largest producer of medical oxygen in Gujarat, alone has installed 15 bulk vacuum-insulated storage tanks at 10 major Covid-19 hospitals. These hospitals include Civil Hospital, UNMICRC and IKDRC on Civil Hospital campus, SMIMER Hospital in Surat, Civil Hospital in Gandhinagar and SSG Hospital and GMERS in Vadodara.
“These installations have total storage capacity of 1.5 lakh litres of liquid oxygen. Our team worked round the clock to install these storage tanks in very short span of time at various government hospitals since the oxygen demand could not be adequately met through only cylinders,” said INOX Air in a statement. The firm is also supplying oxygen directly and through re-fillers to more than 50 hospitals in Gujarat.
Compared to the government sector, the prevalence of liquid oxygen tank is low among private hospitals. In Ahmedabad, a few hospitals such as HCG and Sterling Hospital have opted for tanks. Dr Bharat Gadhvi, CEO and medical director of HCG, said that the decision to install the tank was taken much before the epidemic was driven by the fact that they were treating a high number of critical patients requiring uninterrupted oxygen supply.
“But the steep requirements – an open space, specific dimensions of the land required, safety norms including an explosives licence – could not be met by all private hospitals,” said Dr Gadhvi, who is also president of Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA).