The Metropolitan Hospital in Buruburu has installed a Sh70 million twin oxygen plant.
The Industrialisation Cabinet Secretary, Betty Maina presided over the installation yesterday.
The twin plant has a capacity to produce 600 litres of oxygen in one minute, for the 150-bed capacity hospital.
Residents see his as a game changer in the eastern part of the city where patients have to weave through heavy traffic to access other health facilities such as Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi West, Aga Khan, and Nairobi hospital among others.
The CS said the emergence of Covid-19 and its associated impact has taught the country that it is important to build its own capacity in the wake of critical times occasioned by pandemics and other disasters.
“We need to build our own capacity from what we have learnt during this COVID-19 pandemic period. Within the manufacturing pillar in the Big 4 agenda, we have emphasised that we also have the need to produce our own pharmaceuticals,” she said at Buru Buru.
The twin oxygen plant that was launched according to Metropolitan Hospital Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kanyenje Gakombe said it has capacity to produce 600 litres of the life saving medical commodity in one minute.
“This is equivalent to 100, 8000, 500 litre-cylinders a day. The two plants are designed to run for 24 hours and we are piping oxygen directly to the hospital. Before Covid, we were using 20 cylinders per day, when Covid was at peak we went to 80 litres per day. So this means an increased demand,” he said.
He said with the plant and a cylinder refilling unit within the hospital, 5 extra hospitals in the region could benefit from the facility’s oxygen production but only on normal demand.
“What we have done by piping oxygen to critical areas, it means that now with 10 cylinders, we can supply 40 Covid patients, so the other cylinders can be used elsewhere in the country,” he added, noting that the two plants have a lifespan of 20 years.
