Tomorrow, we celebrate World Oxygen Day 2024! The importance of medical oxygen for patients and lack thereof in many countries became painfully clear during the Covid-19 outbreak. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, The Global Fund (TGF) initiated the Covid-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) to strengthen implementing countries’ health and community systems, prioritising medical oxygen, respiratory care and therapeutics. Through C19RM, countries invest TGF grant funds to bolster health infrastructures by providing medical oxygen and associated clinical and non-clinical products.
Medical oxygen is generally provided by pressure swing adsorption (PSA) plants, which are big industrial machines that require considerable infrastructural preparation.
Mid 2021, i+solutions, procurement service agent for The Global Funds Pooled Procurement Mechanism (PPM), was awarded the contract for the procurement and delivery of these oxygen PSA plants.
Since the start of the project, almost 200 plants for over 30 countries were procured with TGF funds and managed via the PPM. Delivering the containerized or skid-mounted (PSA) plants was hampered due to sites at receiving health facilities not being technically prepared. Hospital administrations did not know how to handle this, as existing buildings had to be adjusted or new buildings constructed, which required a lot of engineering. To improve the installation of the (PSA) Plants, TGF asked i+solutions to help with site preparation, so an oxygen team complete with architects, engineers and project managers was formed.
Still, many challenges had to be overcome to manage all the stakeholders at different levels, to define the exact works to be performed and to include the specific local conditions at each site.
The result has become very visible this past year. Currently, construction works are ongoing at 136 hospitals and the first 27 Plants have been commissioned, meaning finalized sites and installed (PSA) plants are handed over to hospital staff ready for use.
In most cases, there was no infrastructure available, and buildings needed to be designed and constructed from scratch, foundations had to be laid, medical gas piping systems and generators installed. On some occasions, because of a lack of space, the plant needed to be delivered on top of an existing building, so engineers had to be inventive. Please find below a set of pictures showing what the site construction journey from beginning to end looks like.
We are very proud of the work our oxygen team is achieving. We want to thank our counterparts at The Global Fund, our suppliers Sinopharm, Atlas Copco, Airsep, Novair, Ultra Controlo, Afrimed, MILS, Sumer, our logistic service providers Maersk, Logenix and Bollore and all staff at the in-country Ministries of Health, for their ongoing collaboration and help to achieve these results and expand access to oxygen in low-and middle income countries.
#everybreathcounts #WorldOxygenDay #TeamOxyphile
