How Covid-19 Related Medical Oxygen Equipment is Useful To Increase Oxygen Access
Context Decades of conflict and fragility have left Somalia with huge challenges. Despite several transitional governments, militant groups control large swathes of the country, with the majority of the population living under imminent security threats. The country is also besieged by natural disasters, drought and food insecurity. Sadly, it is no surprise that Somalia’s health indicators are among the worst in the world – with life expectancy at just 56 years. The country has the highest under five mortality rate, the second highest newborn mortality rate and the sixth highest maternal mortality ratio globally. More than 60,000 children die every year, mostly from preventable diseases.
Covid-19 Readiness Plan As hospitals begin building new preparedness plans and preparing for potential patient surges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, medical oxygen and gas manufacturers are feeling the pressure, and engineers are working around the clock to develop custom systems to fit the needs of each hospital. MTS is working with 14 manufacturers to meet these demands, and have already developed custom medical oxygen systems for portable and modular emergency shelters.
Scaling up oxygen and the WHO Inventory Tool There is a severe shortage of medical oxygen in Somalia. Bedside oxygen concentrators are scarce, with too few oxygen generation plants for filling cylinders. Where oxygen does exist, it is very expensive – with private suppliers charging around $100 USD for a large cylinder of oxygen. The one UN base producing oxygen cannot meet the demand for this scarce commodity.
To plan for the surge in demand for oxygen during the pandemic, the WHO Somalia country office worked with the Federal Ministry of Health to design and implement a strategy to scale up oxygen.
The first step was to gather data.
Phase 1: Pulse Oximeters and Oxygen Concentrators The first phase focused on the procurement of pulse oximeters and oxygen concentrators to tackle immediate needs – and to save more lives. Somalia received 76 oxygen concentrators to support case management; monitoring equipment such as pulse-oximeters; and medical consumables for oxygen delivery. These technologies were also a better fit with the skill sets of Somalia health workers, as just 23% of facilities surveyed had staff trained in mechanical ventilation and intubation. ď Ź
Phase 2: PSA Oxygen Generation Plants The second phase will focus on bolstering oxygen supply with Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants, which were already under consideration prior to the COVID-19 response.
Three plants were procured – for two facilities in Mogadishu and one in Hargeisa – with dedicated power generators (based on EU funding). To house these units, the WHO country office worked with UN engineers on innovative solutions to ‘containerise’ this oxygen (using similar technology to the highsecurity containers that most UN staff lived in). These ‘plugand-play’ installations will serve three hospitals.
Next Steps – Long-term Oxygen is a smart investment. If we invest now it will help in the future. We will closely monitor and learn from this process and continue to replicate good practice to scale up PSA plants across the country.
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