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Aiming to alleviate the plight of Covid patients across the state, Chief Minister Yogi instructed top officials to meet the rising demand of oxygen on a war-footing and double the number of beds for patients in government and private hospitals.
In the last one week, a total of 866 beds have been increased in over 25 state-run medical colleges and 33 private medical colleges that have been operating as L-2 and L-3 Covid hospitals. O the total number of beds added, 199 are ICU beds. To help ease the ongoing crisis of medical oxygen, Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen generation plants are being installed in more than 13 medical colleges and institutes across the state. Besides, work wais also underway to set up oxygen plants at private hospitals.
The PSA medical oxygen generation plants are being installed in state-run medical colleges in Banda, Azamgarh, Bahraich, Basti, Jalaun, Ambedkar Nagar, Saharanpur,Firozabad, Budaun  and Ayodhya with the PM CARES Fund. A letter has been sent to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to approve funds under the PM CARES Fund for setting up these plants. Besides, oxygen generator plants will be set up in nine state-run medical colleges and institutes, for which funds have been released from the State Disaster Relief Fund, the official said.
To give a major boost to the availability of medical oxygen amid a raging second wave of corona infections, work was underway to set up oxygen producing plants in all such private medical colleges and institutes, which do not have LMO based oxygen plants. These would be set in the state budget. A senior government official said that manufacturing plants have already been set up in over 22 state-run and private medical colleges and institutions including 12 state medical colleges like SGPGI, KGMU, RMLIMS, Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Agra, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh Medical University Saifai, Etawah Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida and Super Specialty Pediatric Hospital and Educational Institute, Noida and 8 private medical colleges such as Era Medical College Lucknow, Sri Ramamurthy Medical College Bareilly, Naraina, Kanpur, Rama Medical College Hapur, Subharti Medical College Meerut, Tirthankar Mahavir Medical College Moradabad, BHU Varanasi and AMU, Aligarh.
On the other hand, to ensure smooth, timely and transparent supply of medical oxygen to Covid critical patients an ‘Oxygen Monitoring System’ - for 24x7 live monitoring of the supply system across the state was developed by Rodic Consultants Pvt Ltd in collaboration with Food and Drug Administration, Department of Medical Education, Department of Medical Health and Family Welfare, and Department of Transport and Home Affairs.
The system will have live information on the demand of oxygen by hospitals in various districts, allotment and loading of oxygen in the vehicles, live location of vehicles moving on the highways, and the supply of the oxygen and its utilization.
Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi said that the digital platform has made it possible to locate vehicles delivering oxygen, along with real-time monitoring and tracking. “A oxygen control room has been set up in the Home department to oversee the demand and supply of oxygen. A total of 321 tons of medical oxygen was supplied yesterday which alone is more than the supply in several other states. There has also been an increase in the number of oxygen tankers, from 30 to 84,” Awasthi informed.