Oxygen plant at Naga Hospital Authority Kohima to be functional within 10 days

Our Correspondent
Kohima, May 5 (EMN): The minister of Health and Family Welfare, S Pangnyu Phom, visited the Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK) on Wednesday to oversee the installation work of the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plant at the facility.

Speaking at the site, Phom expressed hope that the setting up of the plant at NHAK would be completed soon, followed by the facilities in Dimapur and Mokokchung districts.

He also took to social media to inform that ‘installation will be completed on Wednesday night before leakage testing is conducted on Thursday, followed by certification process for official use of the plant’.

He stated that after the installation of oxygen plants in the three districts, other districts too would get the same facilities “under various programmes” in the coming days.

The minister also maintained that the state government is trying its “level best” to curb the spread of the Covid-19, adding that they were trying to mobilise the available resources to combat the pandemic.

He appealed to the citizens of Nagaland to maintain ‘discipline’ and strictly observe Covid-appropriate behaviour and existing SOP.

Installation to start soon in Dimapur, Mokokchung

Meanwhile, an engineer working at the installation site informed Eastern Mirror that the oxygen plant would be fully functional within 10 days or so. He added that the testing samples would be sent to a company in Delhi to get approval for human consumption, following which similar plants would be installed at Dimapur and Mokokchung.

The source informed that the oxygen plant could generate oxygen of about 300 litre per minute and 4, 32, 000 litre per day. He added that the plant was meant for hospital use and would be directly sent to the patient’s beds.

He went on to inform that the oxygen plant was not meant for oxygen cylinder refilling system like an oxygen booster.

The components of the oxygen plant, which were brought from the Absstem Technologies in New Delhi, include two compressors, one air dryer, one air receiver tank, one oxygen generator and two storage tanks.

A doctor told this newspaper that they had received the instruction to expedite the installation process from various quarters including the Health Ministry.

However, he expressed feared that ‘if workers were pressured to execute the task of fixing the equipment without proper verification’, the quality of installation work could suffer. He added that workers start work as early as 6:30 am and leave at around 10 pm.

Tertiary cancer care centre

Phom also inspected the construction site of the tertiary cancer care centre at the hospital. He stated that cancer patients were suffering “more: due to unavailability of such centres in the state.

Dr. Thorusie Katiry, managing director of NHAK, informed that stone piling required ‘lot of time’ and it was completed only last month.

The centre is expected to be completed in December this year, he informed, adding that they have requested the contractor to expedite the building construction work.

It was learnt that construction of bunkers would be taken up next.

“Once the flooring is done, radiation therapy or cancer killing machines should be put under the floor,” he said.

The managing director maintained that construction of the centre will be “very complicated” and that it was necessary to complete the stone piling by any means to ensure that no radiation is leaked in the event of any natural calamities like an earthquake.

“Safety is of paramount importance to us,” he added.

The doctor informed that skilled labourers and machines were brought in from states like Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal (Kolkata) for the initial construction process as no facilities and manpower were available in the state to handle such equipment, thus causing a delay in constructing the centre.