Last Updated on December 24, 2020 by The Health Master
The Gujarat government in coordination with Gujarat Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) has increased production of medical oxygen to 970 Metric Tonnes (MT) per day from 800 MT to cater to 14697 oxygen supported beds and 4942 ICU beds in the state.
Major manufacturers supplying medical oxygen in Gujarat are Inox, Linde, Air Liquid, Shree Ram Oxy and Reliance Industries. Gujarat today boasts 61 medical oxygen manufacturers from the earlier 33 manufactures before the lockdown.
Gujarat FDCA is closely monitoring the consumption and production patterns on a daily basis. The total filling capacity of medical oxygen cylinder in Gujarat on a daily basis is 27,762 cylinder per day.
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the union commerce ministry has also directed state licensing authorities to furnish details about stock of medical oxygen on an urgent basis.
Also read | Medicines worth Rs 5 crore seized: UP
It had also requested to provide information concerning the daily stock position (in tons), daily installed capacity (in tons) and daily actual production (in tons), market share, name and address of the manufacturers along with their contact details and date of verification of the claim of venting.
All this information needed to be furnished by state licensing authorities (SLAs) daily before 05.00 pm. DPIIT had earlier shared with union health ministry list of major medical oxygen manufacturers which are based in:
Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Orissa Gujarat, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Uttarakhand to discuss preparedness for availability of medical oxygen in the country.
Gujarat’s surplus production has also been benefitting neighbouring states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh in the wake of rising cases of C-19.
It was earlier brought to the notice of Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) that few States were trying to curb the free inter-state movement of oxygen supplies by exercising provisions under various Acts.
All healthcare institutions in the state of Gujarat have also been directed to comply with Essential Commodities (EC) Act and provide medical oxygen free of cost.
Aldo read | NPPA fixes retail price of 3 formulations
The Gujarat FDCA had issued licenses to 14 more oxygen manufacturers during the lockdown period.
DCGI had earlier directed state licensing authorities to urgently grant permission to manufacturers of industrial oxygen to manufacture medical oxygen in the light of C-19 outbreak.
As per the DCGI directive to the SLAs, it has been decided in public interest that the premises which are having facility to manufacture industrial oxygen should be granted manufacturing license to manufacture oxygen for medical use within 24 hours of the submission of application and fees as per the Drugs and Cosmetics (D&C) Act.
Supplemental oxygen therapy is a part of the clinical management of C-19. It is the use of oxygen as a medical treatment. This also includes supplementing oxygen for low blood oxygen, carbon monoxide toxicity, cluster headaches and to maintain enough oxygen while inhaled anaesthetics are given.
The Health Master is now on Telegram. For latest update on health and Pharmaceuticals, subscribe to The Health Master on Telegram.
Follow and connect with us on Facebook, Linkedin
