2 new oxygen plants for Shiselweni Region
NHLANGANO – Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have built two oxygen plants for two health facilities in the Shiselweni Region.
The oxygen plants were officially presented to the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, in an event that was held at the Nhlangano Health Centre, last Friday.
The total cost for both plants is US$1 million, which is approximately E18 million. During the presentation, the minister shared that the COVID-19 outbreak was an eye-opener to the country in as far as procuring essential health necessities, including oxygen, was concerned.
She recalled a time where they would make calls around 3am during the COVID-19 era, requesting oxygen from neighbouring South Africa because of the pressure the kingdom had.
The minister narrated that MSF. responded quickly to their request for oxygen during the second wave of COVID-19 and mobilised their resources, including experts from France to construct oxygen plants at Nhlangano Health Centre and Hlatikhulu Government Hospital.
“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of medical oxygen and the importance of establishing in-country production for medical oxygen to cater for our needs.
As a ministry, we had, before the COVID-19 pandemic, realised how little oxygen we had available in the country, but no one could have anticipated the surge in the need for oxygen that came with the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.
Nkosi said it was a great milestone for the country to be able to produce oxygen locally. The minister further noted that medical oxygen was a life-saving essential for a wide range of medical conditions which may quickly worsen if left untreated.
She narrated that the current global stock-out of snake anti-venom had made medical oxygen vital in the treatment of neurotoxin snake bites, which occur frequently in this country. Also, newborns were among the people who needed oxygen a lot.
She emphasised that the COVID-19 pandemic showed them how medical oxygen was important and to ensure that it was regulated as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidance, used as per evidence, and efficiently provided for.
She said her ministry played the role of stewardship and regulation in ensuring uninterrupted access to quality medical oxygen for emaSwati.
Plants
the two facilities, while adding that additional oxygen was transported to other facilities requiring oxygen in the region.
“In addition to the construction of these plants, we would like to thank MSF for the superb work done on TB; construction of a facility to provide quality TB care, taking services out of the facility and into the community, and the technology introduced in health service delivery to make our work easier,” she added.
The minister shared that WHO was supporting in the construction of an oxygen plant for Mbabane Government Hospital, which was the country’s national referral hospital and attended to over 20 000 patients per month.
She further said the Global Fund was also supporting the construction of a plant at Central Medical Stores (CMS) in Matsapha to provide oxygen to facilities in other parts of the country.
The minister said with the installation of oxygen production plants in the two regions (Manzini and Shiselweni) of the country, as well as plans to install additional plants in the two other regions (Hhohho and Lubombo), government and its partners in the oxygen ecosystem, had made significant progress towards increasing access to medical oxygen by installing medical oxygen infrastructure and finalising the national plans to increase in-country effective and efficient oxygen production and supply capabilities.
She ended her trip by launching a Eswatini National Oxygen Operational Plan (ENMOOP) 2023-2025 that will coordinate and guide oxygen investments.
Meanwhile, MSF Head of Mission Dr Bernard Kerschberger said that they were happy that as they were leaving the Shiselweni Region for Matsapha, they left the patients with something valuable that would go a long way in helping them.
“I am sure and very confident that the entire region has enough oxygen for future pandemics and other lung diseases,” he said.
WHO Representative Dr Geoffrey Bisoborwa shared that it was a great milestone for the country to be able to produce its own oxygen. He shared that it was equally important to have oxygen at the right place, time and used correctly, which was something they followed up on.