Oxygen plant breathes life to hospital
Abundance. An attendant at the oxygen processing plant demonstrates to the principal nursing officer at Kabale regional referral hospital, Sr Christine Akurut, how the plant operates on Tuesday. PHOTO BY ROBERT MUHEREZA
What you need to know:
- According to Sr Akurut, a patient requires oxygen when he or she cannot breathe on her own. Many of the patients, who require oxygen, are those with severe injuries on the head, heart complications and pneumonia.
Kabale. Kabale patients can now get sufficient oxygen as a result of the oxygen processing plant established at Kabale Regional Referral Hospital.
The health facilities in the sub-region have over the years been faced with a challenge of insufficient oxygen supply.
The Kabale Principal Nursing officer, Sr Christine Akurut, says the plant that was established in July 2017 and produces 20 cylinders of 50kg of oxygen per day.
The plant compresses atmospheric air to remove nitrogen, carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, moisture and other gases.
Sr Akurut says this has solved the problem of oxygen stock-out that has been a challenge. The medical stores had been supplying the oxygen.
Beneficiaries
The facility serves government hospitals, health centres, and non-profit health facilities in Kigezi and parts of Ankole Sub-region as long as they have oxygen cylinders to keep the gas.
Sr Akurut says Kabale Regional Referral Hospital used to spend Shs50,000 on refilling an empty oxygen cylinder. Buying and filling a cylinder would cost Shs900,000. The hospital uses more than 100 cylinders of oxygen every three months.
“We thank the government for the construction of the oxygen processing plant because the hospital has saved all the money it has been spending on procuring this essential item from National Medical Store,” she says.
Sr Akurut adds that they were using oxygen concentrators which required to first be powered before treating patients but what they are making now doesn,t require fixing in power.
The hospital director, Dr Sophie Namasopo, says the facility was constructed at Shs400m.
The Kisoro hospital medical superintendent, Dr Michael Baganizi, says the plant has saved them the heavy transport costs to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital about 200 kilometres away to refill the cylinders.
According to Sr Akurut, a patient requires oxygen when he or she cannot breathe on her own. Many of the patients, who require oxygen, are those with severe injuries on the head, heart complications and pneumonia.
