Oxygen-surplus Kerala sets an example for other states, rushes medical oxygen to Goa

Kerala has always led from the front, setting a good example for other States to follow. God’s Own Country now has a chance to rush to the rescue of Delhi, which is gasping for life because of severe shortage of oxygen.

As many as 50 patients have died in the national capital due to the shortage of oxygen in hospitals. At least 20 patients died at the Jaipur Golden Hospital. A day earlier, Ganga Ram Hospital saw the death of 25 patients. Five patients lost their lives in a hospital in Amritsar, Punjab. So serious is the situation that a distraught Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has sent an SOS to other States to help Delhi by rushing oxygen supplies fast.

The Delhi High Court, intervening in the matter, pulled up both the Centre and the Delhi Government for their failure to ensure adequate supply of oxygen to hospitals. The Court warned that anyone who tried to obstruct oxygen supplies to hospitals would be hanged. It asked the Centre when the 480 metric tonnes of oxygen per day allocated for Delhi would see the light of the day.

Kerala, which is an oxygen-surplus State, must rise to the occasion and bail out Delhi forthwith. The State must play the saviour as it indeed is in a position to do so. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should give the green signal for the ‘rescue mission’, of course, without compromising on Kerala’s own requirements. It is also a fact that Kerala is highly unlikely to face the kind of shortage a few north Indian States like Delhi and Uttar Pradesh are facing now, given the large stock of oxygen at its disposal.

Incidentally, Kerala has already helped Goa by rushing 20, 000 litres of liquid oxygen for Covid patients in that State recently. Kerala’s heart-warming gesture saw Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane taking to Twitter to thank his Kerala counterpart, K. K. Shailaja. The Minister said the people of his state “are grateful for your contribution to our fight against Covid 19.”

A closer look at how Kerala has managed to reach the comfortable position it enjoys in respect of surplus oxygen stock is in order. It is not as if the State pulled it off just like that. It was the product of advance planning and execution of that plan with clinical efficiency. The partners in this success saga were Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) under the Central Government and the State Health Department. The monitoring of requirements of the patients and the optimal supply scenario was initiated in March last year.

The State produces 204.75tonnes per day of medical oxygen. As much as 51.45 tonnes per day is used for Covid cases; non-Covid care units account for another 47.16 tonnes per day. In other words, the State’s daily need of oxygen is 98.61 tonnes per day. The demand last year was around 100 tonnes per day.

The various State and Central Public Sector Units (PSUs) which scripted this success story are: Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd.(KMML), Chavara (6 tonnes per day; BPCL Kochi (0.322 tonnes per day); Cochin Shipyard (5.45 tonnes per day)and Inox Air Products, Kanjikode (149 tonnes per day).As many as 11 air separation units (ASUs) account for another 44 tonnes per day.

The ASUs are functioning in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts. Inox supplies medical oxygen to hospitals in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Kerala can increase the production of medical oxygen, if necessary, to 250 tonnes per day. Another ASU plant commissioned at Palakkad will start operating in a month. The plant has the capacity to produce 4 tonnes of medical oxygen per day. Besides, there are 23 oxygen filling stations, too. The State may be called upon to raise production in the days ahead as there are signs of a further surge in daily Covid cases. PESO has appointed nodal officers in all States to monitor production, storage and distribution of oxygen. There are nodal officers under the Health Department as well.

KMML was set up only in October last year. Since then, it has produced 900 tonnes of medical oxygen per month. The production can be increased to 210 tonnes per month. As of now, all the plants are not working to their full capacity. If there is demand, the plants can go for 100 per cent capacity.

In another significant development, the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) has helped in the setting up of centralized oxygen distribution facilities in five government hospitals in the State. Government hospitals in Ernakulam have been chosen for the project. The system facilitates direct delivery of oxygen through well-mounted outlets close tothe patient’s bed. The system has been installed at the government taluk hospitals at Fort Kochi, Palluruthy and Tripunithara, District hospital, Aluva and General Hospital, Muvattupuzha.The facilities will be of great help in treating Covid cases, said a statement issued by the CSL.

Meanwhile, Cardinal George Alencherry, major archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church and president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC), has urged the Centre and the State Governments to treat availability of medical oxygen as a basic human right. All necessary steps should be taken to make oxygen available to the people who are gasping for their lives in various hospitals and health care centres in the country, he said.

“We usually speak of food, clothing and shelter as the basic human needs that a Government should provide for its people. Now, in the wake of Covid-19, people’s lives are in extreme danger and there is a clamour for medical oxygen to survive. It is the bounden duty of the Government to make available medical oxygen in all hospitals and health care centres across India,” said the Cardinal.

Also, the Government, he opined, should not see medical oxygen as a marketable commodity to be left to commercial agencies for profiteering. “At a time when many parts of the country are facing an oxygen crisis, we hope the government will rise to the occasion to get rid of all bottlenecks – political or transport-centred – and come forward to use all its resources including chartered flights to bring medical oxygen from abroad so that it can be made available to the states in need.

(IPA Service)

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