• No liquid medical oxygen manufacturers in Mysuru but there are five refilling plants 
• K.R. Hospital itself requires 12 tonnes of oxygen daily to treat c

Mysuru: Thanks to rapid surge in COVID positive cases, the demand for life-saving medical oxygen has increased. The District Administration has already requested the State Government for 20 Kilo Litre (KL) a day of Liquid Medical Oxygen to meet the growing demand. 

As per the data released by the District Administration on May 1, Mysuru has been receiving 15 KL of Liquid Medical Oxygen from Praxair India Pvt Ltd, Koppal and 10 KL from Bhoruka Gases Ltd., Bengaluru, once in three days. A total of 24 KL is currently being utilised for supply to various Government and Private Hospitals of Mysuru district and neighbouring districts, the statement added. 

Mysuru does not have any Liquid Medical Oxygen manufacturer, but has five refilling plants that source bulk medical oxygen from different places. It is a crisis situation if oxygen is delayed from other places even by a day.

To supplement the requirement, GAIL India has been asked by the Centre to set up Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar. GAIL India has said that the works would start quickly. 

Requirement high at K.R. Hospital 

The 100-year-old K.R. Hospital, popularly known as ‘Doddaspatre’ among villagers, is treating 500 COVID patients in Surgical Ward and Medical Ward. Among them, 72 are on ventilator support and 428 patients are being given oxygen support. For 500 patients, one load carrying 12 tonnes of oxygen worth Rs. 3 lakh is needed, Dr. N. Nanjundaswamy, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, told Star of Mysore. 

“We get oxygen in tankers from Ballari daily and it will be loaded to the oxygen plant — having a capacity of 13 KL — installed in the Stone Building premises. From there, oxygen is supplied in dedicated pipelines to the wards and individual beds. It will be crisis situation if the supply is delayed even by a day. We cannot treat COVID-19 patients without oxygen. 50 percent of the total 1,050 beds at K.R. Hospital have been reserved for COVID patients,” he said. 

Refilling plants

The five refilling plants source medical oxygen in bulk from Bellary Oxygen Company in Ballari, Praxair India Pvt Ltd from Koppal and Bhoruka Gases Ltd., from Bengaluru. Padaki Air Products and Trinethra Gas, both situated in Kadakola near Mysuru and Mahanthi Oxygen in Hebbal Industrial Area have a capacity to refill about 20 KL each per day. Southern Gas Limited, Hebbal, has a capacity to refill about 10 KL per day and Mangala Ravi Enterprises in Yadavagiri has a refilling capacity of 5 KL per day. 

According to oxygen availability data from the COVID-19 War Room report dated May 4 (yesterday), a total of 906 jumbo cylinders of 47 litre capacity, 360 cylinders of 10 litre capacity and 70 cylinders of 1.1 litre capacity, besides 51 Dura cylinders of 200 litres of Liquid Medical Oxygen were available in Government and Private Hospitals in Mysuru district.