Three months after the first Covid-19 patients were detected in the country, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has taken initiative to ensure oxygen supply in every district.
Health experts and epidemiologists have long been advising the government to ensure an adequate oxygen supply for severe or critical Covid-19 patients across the country.
The government took the decision to shore up oxygen supply to hospitals as the provision of oxygen has proven crucial to ensuring the survival and recovery of Covid-19 patients until an effective medicine to treat the disease is found.
Contacted, DGHS Director (Hospital) Dr Aminul Hasan said: “To ensure uninterrupted oxygen supply, we have already ordered the installation of liquid oxygen tanks and central oxygen supply pipelines at hospitals.
“We are trying to ensure at least one hospital in each district, specifically the district hospital, has all the necessary facilities to provide an adequate supply of oxygen. We have already started reinforcing oxygen supply to districts hit hard by the novel coronavirus,” he added.
On June 2, Additional Secretary (Hospital) Sirajul Islam wrote to the chief technical manager of National Electro- Medical Equipment Workshop (NEMEW) asking for the installation of liquid oxygen tanks at hospitals with central oxygen supply pipelines for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
DGHS Director Dr Aminul Hasan sent a letter to the additional secretary (hospital) on June 14, asking that with UNICEF funds applied, all hospitals for Covid-19 treatment are ensured to have liquid oxygen tanks and central oxygen supply pipeline connections.
In the letter, the director requested the additional secretary to instruct the Health Engineering Department to initiate measures to install central oxygen supply pipeline connections and liquid oxygen tanks.
According to the hospital and clinic unit of the DGHS, there are around 45 government hospitals at the district level, tertiary and medical college hospitals that already have central oxygen supply pipeline connections. 23 hospitals already have oxygen supply tanks at the minimum level or more.
