Oxygen supplies going smoothly across Kashmir; wastage, imprudent utilization a concern: Experts

Srinagar: An online training workshop was Wednesday conducted under the Chairmanship of Divisional Commissioner (Div Com) Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole in order to ascertain the efficient and optimal usage of oxygen across all dedicated Covid-19 hospitals.
During the meeting threadbare discussion was held on prevention of wastage of Oxygen at different levels including proper flow, checking the leakage and curbing all wastage.
The training was organized by Divisional Covid Control Room, Kashmir and conducted by National Resource Faculty- Dr.Kaustubh Butala, Consultant Govt of Maharashtra, Dr. Pankaj Arora, Senior Faculty, Hospital Administration (PGI, Chandigarh), Dr. Sonali Salvi, Consultant Anaesthesiologist.
A team of representatives from SKIMS Soura, SKIMS Bemina JVC, SMHS Hospital, CD Hospital, Kashmir Nursing Home and JLNM attended the workshop and a committee was constituted for monitoring and auditing of oxygen delivery systems on a daily basis.
Among the participants who attended the online meeting were representatives from tertiary care hospitals and representatives from all districts of Kashmir Division consisting of members from healthcare, administration, technical experts, mechanical engineer and oxygen plant operators. All the participants will act as ToTs and will impart training in their respective districts within two days.
The Divisional level committee constituted shall regularly inspect the oxygen plant, manifold/pipeline and oxygen delivery ports to ascertain any leakages in the Oxygen delivery system.
The Div Com stressed that the committee shall ensure that the LPM delivery setting changes are carried with the precautions and staff is trained for the same. The committee shall submit detailed inspection reports to the Head of the Institutions for corrective measures needed.
Earlier, a committee was constituted comprising Director SKIMS, Director Health Services Kashmir and other officers to assess the oxygen supply status, and submitted a detailed report to the experts in India including Maharashtra.
In the backdrop of the report, experts conducted the workshop to address the issues related to smooth supply of oxygen. The experts opined that, “the oxygen is sufficiently available to the requirement, however, there are also huge wastage which needs to be addressed on priority”.
The Div Com stressed that the district level committees shall monitor, audit and evaluate all the parameters related to oxygen delivery systems which shall be supervised by committees at the divisional levels. Districts were emphasized to complete the training and execute monitoring and evaluation on war footing basis. More such training sessions will be conducted for third party audit.
The meeting ended with closing comments from MD NHM, M Yasin Chaudhary and on behalf of the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, a vote of thanks was presented to National Resource Faculty