The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) and Sewa Guyana, on Monday donated an oxygen generating plant to the Infectious Disease Hospital, Liliendaal.
During a virtual press conference, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony said purchasing of oxygen for the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been costly, and noted that the independent source of oxygen will substantially decrease the level of expense.
“As you know the COVID-19 hospital at Liliendaal, we have close to 200 beds and we have been buying oxygen for that facility. Our ICU set up there, we have moved it from about eight beds to now about 52 beds and therefore providing constantly, the amount of oxygen is a very expensive exercise… Once that is up and running, it would substantially decrease the cost that we’ll have at the COVID hospital to provide oxygen,” the minister said.
Coordinator of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS), Mr. Ravi Dev stated that discussions to source the oxygen plant commenced a few months ago with Dr. Anthony.
“So, when I got in touch with Minister Anthony, he said yes of course we need those items, they’re vital in terms of their prevention of the virus from entering our system and that’s critical, that’s not to be scoffed at. But he then took the opportunity, he had heard about the same organisations abroad, Sewa international, flying thousands of generating plants to India and he asked me whether we could source one of those because looking ahead, he felt and he was proven right, unfortunately he felt that we would have our surge sooner rather than later.
So, I said of course we will try, so I got in touch with the individuals both in the US and in the UK … and they went ahead and sourced it,” Mr. Dev related.
The oxygen plant, which was sourced from India, will be flown into Guyana as soon as the logistics are sorted.
“This is where I really want to assure you out there, I want to assure Minister Anthony that the plant has already been sourced, it’s just a matter of getting a flight. It’s in the hands of DHL [Global Logistics- International Shipping], and it will be flown into Guyana. You can imagine the expense of flying it but at this juncture, we agree with Minister Anthony that we need to ensure that our Infectious Disease Hospital is supplied with its independent source of oxygen,” he said.
Mr. Khandai Seenanan, engineer attached to HSS, stated that the oxygen plant will supply medical oxygen through the Pressure Swing Absorption process.
“The plant is designed to concentrate the oxygen at a scale with the output typically varying from two normal meter cube to about 200-meter cube per hour. The plant that we have sourced is 800 liters per minute, we have done a generous calculation per bed or per person or individual of 16 liters per minute that works to about 50 patients at any one time that can be supplied with oxygen from this plant,” he said.
The oxygen plant will be functioning 24/7 to facilitate patients at the hospital. An engineer from India will also be commissioning the plant before training persons to operate the machine. (DPI)
