Address shortage of medical oxygen
By Editorial.Team, June 13, 2024At the height of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020, Kenya was abuzz with the rush to acquire and install oxygen plants at every public health facility.
Oxygen is a critical component in emergency respiratory resuscitation and in treating non-respiratory diseases that result in an abnormally low concentration of oxygen in the blood system (hypoxemia), such as sepsis, severe malaria, trauma and cardiovascular illnesses.
There was excitement as Ministry of Health officials and county honchos hastily convened press briefings to announce the arrival of ultramodern oxygen equipment or the sealing of a public-private partnership that could see particular public health facilities handle affected patients.
This was brought about by projections from the World Health Organisation and local health experts that Kenya was likely to be overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients in critical care that required medical oxygen.
Hundreds of millions of shillings were allocated to modernising medical oxygen facilities at public health facilities. Take, for example, Kakamega county, which acquired a Sh100 million medical oxygen facility from France with a capacity to pump 1,000 litres of the precious gas per minute.
Other countries followed suit
But the action plan seems to have died soon after and was buried alongside the Covid-19 menace. With hype and interest among those in authority gone, the situation today is dire, revealed a report released on Monday by the Africa Population and Health Research Centre.
Only one of the 10 plants installed in that emergency period is operating optimally, while nine are either partially functional or dead, the report says. Almost all health facilities lack supplementary oxygen equipment, adequate supply chains for cylinders and reliable electricity for delivery.
An increase in tariffs on electricity and fuel prices, reliance on imported cylinders and disruptions in the global supply chain have made medical oxygen out of reach many who need it. This is blamed for the high number of deaths at rural health facilities.
If the government is serious about implementing Universal Health Coverage, officials should move swiftly to address the acute shortage of supplementary medical oxygen at hospitals.