why medical oxygen crisis in india?

 It is no longer a pity that the country is completely engulfed by the Corona pandemic . the country's health system has collapsed badly. Shortage of beds and medicines in hospitals have killed hundreds of citizens. The Government of India is being criticized in the international media due to the oxygen crisis. Can you imagine that in many hospitals, patients are not admitted just because there is a shortage of oxygen? Can you imagine that many hospitals have to lock up due to lack of oxygen? At a time when the country is in dire need of hospitals, their closure is indeed a matter of concern. This is the reason why there is a debate around the country over the lack of oxygen amidst the Corona crisis. 24 people died in a private hospital in the country's capital due to the shutdown of oxygen supply. The court has given strict instructions to the central government, expressing strong objection to the situation. It would not be wrong to say that the laxity in the supply of oxygen is completely a failure of the government. Medical oxygen is not able to reach hospitals within the stipulated time. Who is to be blamed for this? After millions of lives, now the government is seen coming into action. Apart from this, it is very important to know what is this medical oxygen? For which there is an outcry in the whole country. It has to be seen how this oxygen is produced. And what are the challenges in its transportation?

What is medical oxygen?

We all know that natural air which is also called ‘pranavayu’ gives us oxygen to breathe. According to science, this air contains about 21% oxygen. It contains 78% nitrogen. But medical oxygen contains up to 99.5% pure oxygen. Medical oxygen does not contain dust or other gas. They all have their presence in the natural air. This is why patients need medical oxygen instead of natural air. When the condition of a patient becomes very bad. And especially when they have difficulty breathing. Then they need medical oxygen. Natural air contains low amounts of oxygen due to which the patient has difficulty in breathing. At the same time, due to 99.5% pure oxygen in medical oxygen, patients are able to breathe easily. This is why medical oxygen is used for patients.

 How is it manufactured?

 In fact, medical oxygen is produced under the special supervision of scientists. But obtaining oxygen for industrial and medical use is not easy. It is produced by extremely complex science processes. The air is liquefied by applying pressure directly to the label. And then the liquid is separated into blue air, separating the components of air. This oxygen is extremely cold. It is a cryogenic gas. Whose temperature is up to -180 ° C. However, maintaining this temperature to maintain oxygen in liquid form is a big challenge. But it is kept in liquid form so that it is easy to store and transport. It can be kept and transported only in special calendars. In India, about 500 factories work to extract oxygen from the air and purify it, after which it is converted into a liquid and sent to a hospital. Most of the gas is supplied from tankers. Large oxygen manufacturers in India use cryogenic distillation techniques to compress. Keep it in distillation columns. And then receive liquid oxygen. According to industry experts, India has the capacity to produce more than 7000 metric tons of medical oxygen. The largest of the major manufacturers is Inox Air Products which produces 2000 tons every day. The oxygen manufacturing companies store this liquid oxygen in a large tanker and distribute it to the distributors in cryogenic tankers. Liquid oxygen is stored in tankers at a temperature of - 180 degree centigrade. The process of regasification is adopted at the distributor level to convert oxygen into a gas and fill it into cylinders. This cylinder is small suppliers that go directly to hospitals. It is not possible to install new oxygen manufacturing plants immediately. Started two plants in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh to produce 200 and 150 tonnes per day in the last 1 year. The process of setting up a plant took 24 months. This is the reason that due to the increase in demand, the hospital has not been able to provide oxygen in due time. However, the Central Government has started the Oxygen Express in this crisis. Instead of the road, oxygen is being transported by train. Trains carrying oxygen cylinders are reaching where most are needed. At the same time, the Indian Air Force is also carrying oxygen airlifts from military stations. Apart from this, the government is planning to import 50,000 tons of liquid oxygen, for this the government has also talked to many countries. 

 What kind of problems are there in its transportation?

 Actually large hospitals have their own tanks. In which oxygen is filled. From there, it is supplied to the bed of the patient. Small and temporary hospitals use steel and aluminum cylinders. Oxygen tanks often have to queue for hours outside the plant. Because it takes about 2 hours to fill a tanker. After this, it takes many hours to deliver these tanker trucks to the cities of different states. The speed limit is also set for them. It cannot accelerate at a speed of 40 kilometers per hour. Do not walk even at night for fear of accidents. Manufacturers who prepare liquid oxygen are transported to distributors in cryogenic tankers at a specified temperature. But there are not enough cryogenic tankers to ensure 24 × 7 road transport of medical oxygen in India. In such a situation, when the oxygen is transported from one state to another, the travel time from the manufacturer to the patient's bed is increased from 3:00 to 5 days to 6 to 8 days. The smaller the hospital, the more oxygen it takes to reach there. Small suppliers have also complained that they do not have enough cylinders to maintain supply flow. This is why it is not easy to transport oxygen to patients quickly.

What next? 

 If we talk about the current pandemic, then usually 30 out of every 100 patients are seeing signs of infection. Among them, only 10 to 15 patients are those who need medical oxygen. But the current situation is due to an increase in the number of patients due to oxygen crisis. Before covid-19, there was 1000 to 1200 MT of medical oxygen daily in the country, but due to the increasing cases of corona continuously, about 5000 meters of oxygen is needed every day. That is, there is a problem due to high demand. Also, only 1200 to 1500 cryogenic tankers are available to deliver liquid oxygen to the distribution. Even at the distributor level, there is a shortage of empty cylinders to convert liquid oxygen into gas and fill it in the cylinder. The central government has announced that 551 PSA plants producing oxygen will be set up in government hospitals across the country with the help of pm Cares fund. This announcement of the government is very important to avoid the oxygen crisis. But it will have to be tried that this plant be set up in a fixed time without any delay. Significantly, last year, the government announced to set up 162 plants. But so far only 33 can be planted. Huge storage tanks need to be installed in hospitals to store supplies. Its capacity should be so that the stored oxygen can work for at least 10 days. However, in the last 1 year, many civil hospitals have installed such huge tankers to avoid their daily wait for oxygen cylinders. Apart from this, there is also a need to consider ways of protecting oxygen from waste and protecting it for the future. For this, the Ministry of Health has repeatedly warned against the waste and unnecessary use of oxygen. Concrete steps need to be taken to address the problem of possible leakage of oxygen into the hospital pipeline. Last year, an expert committee under the Ministry of Health set an oxygen supply of 15 liters per minute, per patient, 40 liters in perinatal intensive care units and 40 liters in uncommon wards. This committee recommended daily monitoring of patients on oxygen support. Accordingly, only those with office linings below 94% should be placed on oxygen support. However, there is a need to be very vigilant to avoid the lack of medical oxygen in the country. If oxygen plants are set up in a fixed time, then not only can the lack of oxygen be avoided, but thousands of lives can be saved.