50 percent of Medical Oxygen Supply capacity to be reserved for Government Health care sector: Div Com

Jammu: Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Dr Raghav Langer today convened a meeting of Health & Medical Education department to review the Covid-19 related issues, primarily the status of availability of medical oxygen supply to Government Hospitals across the Jammu division.
It was directed by the Divisional Commissioner that all private Medical Oxygen suppliers shall immediately reserve 50 percent of their capacity to cater to the demand of Government Institutions.
In this regard, the Divisional Commissioner also constituted a committee headed by Director Industries & Commerce and consisting of Controller Legal Metrology Jammu, Controller Stores Directorate Health services, Assistant Controller Drugs.
The committee shall on the weekly basis review the production of 08 private medical oxygen supply firms operating in Industrial Estates of Jammu/Samba/Kathua/Udhampur and furnish the reports to the Health and Medical Education Department and office of the Divisional Commissioner. They will also tally the figure of the demand received from various Government health care facilities and the supplies made to the Government facilities by the private vendors including time delay, if any and reasons thereof.
The committee will submit weekly status report to the Health and Medical Education Department & office of the Divisional Commissioner.
The said committee shall also constitute field teams which will randomly visit and check the medical oxygen supply agencies and check for instances of any underweight cylinders, violation of legal metrology norms and diversion of cylinder to the private entities within the quota fixed for the Government Health care facilities.
The Divisional Commissioner has directed the concerned District Magistrates to periodically review the same in view of the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases and in case any shortage of medical oxygen supply is reported, action under the provisions of Disaster Management Act and Legal Metrology rules shall be taken.
The Div Com also reviewed in detailed the status of Oxygen Generation Plants which are to be installed in 17 health care facilities across the Jammu division and in view of the delayed in the implementation of projects strict warning was issued to Chief Engineer, Mechanical Engineering Department to furnish the status report in the matter and explain the reasons of delay in the execution and completion of the works on Oxygen Generation Plants.
The status of functionality of the ventilators was assessed by the Divisional Commissioner and directions were given to MD NHM to apprise the Administrative Department about the requirement of anesthesia and technical man power for ensuring full functionality of the ventilators.
MD NHM briefed the Divisional Commissioner that approvals have been given by NHM to all the Government Medical Colleges as well as CMOs to engage on a short term contract basis different technical man power like Multipurpose Health workers, technical staff, lab technicians, anesthesia technicians, data entry operators etc on a walk in interview basis.
The Divisional Commissioner also directed the JKMSCL to ensure timely supplies of RT-PCR, VTM and RAT Kits to the various Government Health institutions as per the requisitions.
Meanwhile, it was also directed that local funds from the NHM grants, SDRF Covid-19 fund should be utilized at the district level to supplement the gaps in the timely supply of Covid-19 related equipments and materials.
Meanwhile, instructions were given to the In-charge IIIM, Covid Testing facility Jammu to enhance the testing capacity of the said facility.
All principals of Government Medical Colleges of Kathua, Jammu, Rajouri and Doda were directed to immediately furnish their requirements to the administrative department so that necessary timely action can be initiated for fulfillment of the same.
The meeting was attended by MD NHM, Mr Yasin Choudhary IAS ; Principal GMC Jammu, Dr Shashi Sudan; Director Health Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma; Chief Engineer, MED, besides senior functionaries of Industries & Commerce, JKMSCL, Legal Metrology, Drug Control, PWD, JPDCL and other concerned while Principals of GMCs, CMOs and Medical Superintendents of Jammu division attended the meeting through video conferencing.