Baglung’s Dhaulagiri hospital starts selling surplus oxygen

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT, Baglung, Dec. 11: Dhaulagiri Hospital, in Baglung district, has started to produce oxygen commercially. The high-capacity oxygen plant was set up during the time of COVID-19 crisis, and the capacities of the old ones have also been upgraded. 

Recently, the leftover oxygen was sold to a health institution for commercial use.  The hospital, which once experienced debilitating crisis of oxygen, has now reached the point of exporting itself. 

It had been reeling from an acute oxygen shortage in the wake of second wave of the pandemic.

The oxygen plant has been established at a cost of Rs. 30 million funded by the federal and Gandaki province governments. Tej Prasad Niure, administration branch officer of the hospital, informed that the new oxygen plant has been in operation for the past two months and is now producing regular medical oxygen.

Earlier, a 25-bed oxygen plant was established in the hospital with the help of Rs. 5 million from the Gandaki province government.  

As the oxygen was insufficient during the pandemic, the hospital was forced to purchase oxygen from Pokhara and other places for the treatment of critically ill patients. 

After the new oxygen plant came into operation, the hospital has started surplus selling oxygen to the hospitals in the local level and the private sector as well, Niure informed.

A letter has been sent to the hospitals of local level to coordinate if oxygen is required, he added. "Our oxygen is cheaper than those of private companies. The cost of transporting it from outside districts is also saved." 

The hospital management committee has fixed the rates for filling three oxygen cylinders, small, medium and large. Private sector will have to pay an additional Rs. 50 more on the fixed price including VAT, said Niure.  The price of a small oxygen cylinder is Rs. 370, a medium one is Rs. 650 and a large oxygen cylinder is Rs. 1,300. 

Dr. Abhishek Wagle, acting medical superintendent of the hospital, informed that the oxygen cylinders obtained from different areas during COVID-19 have been secured for the hospital. 

When Dhaulagiri hospital is upgraded as a sub-regional hospital of Gandaki province, the oxygen produced by the oxygen plant will be consumed in the hospital itself.