MOH procures Oxygen plant for ‘COVID’ Hospital

Oct 08, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has procured an oxygen plant for the COVID-19 Hospital, located at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

While giving the daily COVID-19 update on Wednesday, the Health Minister said, “We are expecting to have an oxygen plant coming in shortly that we will be setting up at the Ocean View Facility, so that we can self-generate our own oxygen. That would help to reduce the amount of oxygen that we have to purchase on a daily basis.”

Dr. Anthony further stated that they are currently 136 people hospitalised with the virus and of this number 81 patients require oxygen.

The Minister’s announcement on the Government’s new purchase came less than a month after he had revealed that it costs the State more than US$5000 to treat one COVID-19 patient.

According to the Health Minister, on average, the bill would be US$5,000 to treat one COVID-19 patient. He explained that one reason the cost to treat a patient would go up is due to buying oxygen for patients. “Some of the persons would require 15 litres of oxygen per minute, in other cases they require 30 litres of oxygen per minute and we have to buy the oxygen,” Dr. Anthony added.

Kaieteur News had reported that the government had installed a huge tank at the Ocean View Hospital, which is being filled with oxygen every 24 hours. However, he stated that the refilling of the tanks could change depending on the patient load for that day. The Minister noted that the aforementioned also occurs at the regional hospitals.

As a result, the Government has procured the oxygen plant to help cut the cost that is currently being spent to purchase oxygen.

The Ministry of Health had also requested support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to assess the oxygen supply infrastructure in the regional hospitals. From this, measures were proposed to increase the distribution of oxygen.

In August, a Consultant from PAHO, Lucio De Magalhaes Brit visited Guyana to analyse the medical oxygen supply capacities in hospitals across this country. The consultant had recommended a comprehensive approach to re-structuring oxygen supply and, in some cases, upgrading health services in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.

For the month of September, Guyana had recorded a significant increase in positive COVID-19 cases and deaths. Despite the aforementioned, Dr. Anthony stated that, unfortunately, there are still a large number of persons who are not heeding the Ministry’s advice to get vaccinated and added that that can lead to more recorded cases. According to the Health Minister, “This is avoidable, because if people take the vaccine we will see less hospitalisation.”

He was also keen to note that the Government is not forcing anyone to take the vaccine, and highlighted that individuals have the choice to take the vaccine. He said, however, that those unvaccinated are subject to restrictions, if they fail to provide a negative PCR test.

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