Piped Oxygen Supply System in JLN Hospital being extended to Children’s Wards
Bhilai, May 21: SAIL-Bhilai Steel Plant has taken many measures for facilitating better COVID treatment at the Plant’s JLN Hospital & Research Centre. The Plant management under the leadership of Director I/c Anirban Dasgupta has been providing all necessary support to Medical & Health Services team by proactively taking several measures to facilitate Covid treatment.
While such equipment as additional number of ventilators, new CPAP and BI-PAP machines in ICUs & High Dependency Units and Oxygen Concentrators were procured for treatment of critical patients, one of the vital installations that aided treatment of COVID patients in JLN Hospital is the system of piped oxygen supply at bedside. Many lives were saved because of supply of piped oxygen at right pressure to patients.
However, even as number of COVID patients increased, the need for extending piped oxygen supply to more number of beds was felt. According to Shahid Ahmed, GM (Maintenance), the number of beds with piped oxygen supply was increased to 317 as against 100 during pre-Covid period. Pipes for oxygen supply were laid in two isolation wards, H0 Gynaecology Ward, H0 Male Chest Ward and A3 Ward for direct supply of piped oxygen to needy patients.
As a precautionary measure in view of the Covid threat perceived in months to come, the Plant management decided to extend the system of piped oxygen supply to wards for children. On May 21, 2021, work for piped oxygen supply in each bed of C3 Children’s Ward was completed. Work to extend Piped oxygen supply system to C1 Children’s Ward has also begun and is expected to be completed shortly. Once completed, children admitted in these wards would no longer be dependent on oxygen cylinders for oxygen. The Plant’s JLN Hospital will therefore be prepared and equipped for treatment of children in any of these two wards.
The decision to extend piped oxygen supply is being implemented by the Hospital Maintenance Team under the guidance of Dr S K Issar, ED (M&HS) and Chief Medical Officers Dr Binayeke and Dr Ravindranath. The Maintenance team led by Shahid Ahmed, GM (Maintenance) and Balbir Singh, GM (Maintenance) has seen to it that the system is extended on time. VK Nagpure and Ravi, Sr Technician, both members of the team have ensured that work progresses on a brisk pace.
There are now plans to extend the piped oxygen supply to all 860 beds of JLN Hospital, thereby ensuring that the hospital is fully equipped to provide piped oxygen to all patients, if need be.
The management has also placed an order for a new vaporiser to ensure supply of oxygen from liquid medical oxygen. Expected to be delivered soon, the new vaporiser has a capacity of 1000 cubic metre, which is ten times more than the existing vaporiser. According to Shahid Ahmed, GM (Maintenance), the new vaporiser would enable piped oxygen supply to all 860 beds of the hospital. Foundation work for installing the new vaporiser has been completed, he said.
