COMMENTARY |
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Year : 2021 | Volume
: 65
| Issue : 1 | Page : 82-84 |
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Meeting oxygen requirements of rural India: A self-contained solution
Nirupam Madaan1, Biraj Chandra Paul2, Randeep Guleria3
1 Additional Professor, Department of Hospital Administration, AIIMS, New Delhi, India 2 Senior Resident, Department of Hospital Administration, AIIMS, New Delhi, India 3 Director, AIIMS, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Nirupam Madaan Room No. 4A, Ground Floor, Old Private Ward, AIIMS, New Delhi - 110 029 India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_1405_20
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Addressing oxygen requirements of rural India should aim at using a safe, low-cost, easily available, and replenishable source of oxygen of moderate purity. This may be possible with the provision of a self-sustaining oxygen concentrator (pressure swing adsorption with multiple molecular sieve technology) capable of delivering oxygen at high-flow rates, through a centralized distribution system to 100 or more bedded rural hospitals, with back up from an oxygen bank of 10 × 10 cylinders. This will provide a 24 × 7 supply of oxygen of acceptable purity (~93%) for the treatment of hypoxemic conditions and will enable hospitals to specifically provide for high-flow oxygen in at least 15% of the beds. It may also serve as a facility for a local refill of oxygen cylinders for emergency use within the hospital as well as to subsidiary primary health centers, subcenters, and ambulances, thereby nudging our health-care system toward self-sufficiency in oxygen generation and utilization.
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