AP govt opens war rooms for seamless O2 supply to hospitals

Amaravati(AP), May 9: The Andhra Pradesh government has opened a State Oxygen War Room (SOWR) to ensure seamless management of oxygen supply to all districts and thereafter to hospitals for treatment of critical Covid-19 patients.

A District Oxygen War Room has also been established in each of the 13 districts for the purpose. The Centre has allotted 590 tonnes of oxygen supplies to AP. While the current consumption is about 500 tonnes, the demand is expected to go up further and, accordingly, the state requested the Centre to increase the allocation to 1,000 tonnes.

COVID-19 second wave has been wide spread and it is identified that oxygen is one of the most valuable resources which needs to be procured, transported and consumed with utmost care.

lt is extremely important to ensure seamless management of oxygen supply to the state, from state to the districts and from districts to hospitals and refillers and from refillers to the hospitals, which are the consuming points without any chain break on day to day and hourly basis," Principal Secretary (Health) Anil Kumar Singhal said in an order.

The war rooms would have nodal officers from industries, revenue, disaster management, police, transport, health and Information Technology departments. The State Oxygen War Room would be responsible for monitoring the production, storage, transport, distribution, consumption and supply chain monitoring of medical oxygen at the state level, he noted.

The industries department would coordinate the overall production and supply of Liquid Medical Oxygen from the source points. Besides, the industries department would also be responsible for ensuring oxygen production capacity augmentation in the state by bringing all the related industries into the supply chain and making the sick units operational.

The transport department has been entrusted with the responsibility to include as many cryogenic vehicles as possible into the fleet operating in AP''s oxygen supply chain. Singhal asked the police department to ensure unrestricted movement of vehicles carrying LMO within and outside the state, by creating a green channel.

"All oxygen vehicles shall travel with police convoy all the time even when they are empty," the Principal Secretary said. The Principal Secretary directed the police to be "very cautious" and not intimidate the drivers (of oxygen vehicles). On oxygen management at the hospital level, Singhal said the number of beds should be increased only upon assessing the oxygen supplies, after informing the SOWR about any increase.

"Every hospital would be required to maintain the consumption below 20 litres per minute. Any hospital exceeding this average is to be understood as mismanaged," the Principal Secretary cautioned.

Meanwhile, the state government on Sunday appointed Industries Department Special Chief Secretary R Karikal Valaven as the officer in-charge for coordinating the movement and supply of liquid medical oxygen from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.