Odisha constitutes task force for medical oxygen management

BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Tuesday constituted a task force that would prepare and implement a plan for provisioning medical oxygen in all the healthcare facilities of the state.
The task force will be headed by Asit Tripathy, principal advisor to chief minister Naveen Patnaik while it will have eight other members including senior bureaucrats from departments like industries, works, health and representatives from industries associations like federation of Indian chamber of commerce and industry (FICCI) and Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ltd (UCCI).
According to a notification issued by the health and family welfare department, the task force will take up initiatives to increase production and provisioning of medical oxygen in the state. It will also engage with various stakeholders to improve the availability of cylinders and tankers for storage of medical oxygen and ensure enhancing the oxygen refilling capacity in the state.
“The task force will take up initiatives to facilitate smooth logistics arrangements for transport of medical oxygen and to prepare plan and implement in-situ production and distribution of medical oxygen in health facilities through piping systems,” said the notification.
As the pandemic has brought to the fore the critical requirement of adequate production and stocking of medical oxygen at health facilities for treatment of Covid-19 patients, the task force has also been asked to prepare a long-term medical oxygen security plan for Odisha.
Odisha’s oxygen consumption capacity at present is 56.73 MT per day while the state’s production capacity is 155.51 MT per day through cylinders and 375 MT through liquid medical oxygen, said official sources.
The state government has amended the Odisha Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR)-2015 to include manufacturing and refilling of medical oxygen and its containers in the priority list. The move is aimed to increase production of medical oxygen in the state by providing incentives to interested investors.