All city hospitals should have oxygen plants: HC

NEW DELHI: All hospitals in Delhi with more than 100 beds should install Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plants with a capacity of at least twice their requirement of medical oxygen in view of the “bitter experience” due to shortage of medical oxygen supply and the lesson learnt from it.

A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh directed the principal secretary, Delhi government, to look into the issue and file a status report by May 27.

“The bitter experience that everyone in the NCT of Delhi has had with huge shortage of medical oxygen has certainly left a lesson to be learnt particularly by hospitals and nursing homes operating in Delhi,” the bench said.

“Considering that the pandemic is once-in-a-century and hopefully we will see the end of it sooner or later, we are of the view that larger hospitals with 100-bedded facilities or more should have their own PSA plants which should have a capacity of at least two times of their normal requirement,” it added.

The bench also said that even the smaller hospitals and nursing homes with 50 to 100 beds should also have PSA plants to meet their requirement, which will help if “such a situation arises again in the future”.

PSA plants uses sieves that absorb nitrogen from ambient air to concentrate oxygen for supply to hospitals or the industry. The oxygen is then supplied either through a pipeline or is compressed to fill cylinders.

The court said these directions should be complied with by all the hospitals in the national capital, which comes under the Delhi government, Central government, municipal corporations and others and it should also be followed in case of new hospitals also.

The Centre’s counsel told the court that some plants which are to be installed have not been received as they form part of the aid being received from several countries.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, told the court that five plants have been commissioned, and 32 are to come up.

The court also said the Centre and Delhi government shall designate nodal officers to monitor the aspect of supply and installation of PSA plants in the hospitals here, if not done already.

The court cautioned authorities that they should not relax after the recent dip in Covid-19 cases in the national capital as

“there is a likelihood that the virus would again raise its ugly head”, and reminded them to create buffer stock of liquid medical oxygen (LMO).

The high court said it is the duty of the Centre and the Delhi government to ensure that they are again not caught underprepared to deal with the situation.

“If you have not taken steps, we will come and chase you again. We are telling you, we mean business. Please don’t take it lightly we are again warning you,” the bench said.

The Delhi government told the court that it has created a buffer stock of 419 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen at different locations, and are making arrangements for creating further stock in next 10 days.

The bench also asked the Centre, Delhi government and municipal corporations to provide accommodations to all the health workers who were willing to avail it, so that they did not carry the Covid-19 infection to their homes.

The court also asked the Delhi government to consider issuing an order under the Disaster Management Act in this regard.

The court asked the Delhi government, Centre and the MCDS to file their respective status reports in this regard.