United States Agency for International Development (USAID) deputy mission director Bert Ubamadu on Thursday commissioned a Sh 26.8million oxygen processing plant at Nandi Hills Sub County hospital, Nandi County.
The 283 litres per minute Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plant funded by USAID and prepared for installation by Reaching Impact, Saturation and Epidemic control (RISE) project, is capable of making medical grade oxygen from air and filling 10 cylinders in 24 hours.
Speaking after commissioning the plant at Nandi Hills Sub County Hospital the USAID deputy mission director Bert Ubamadu said this is a step towards strengthening Kenya’s healthcare system to enable Kenyans to lead prosperous fulfilling lives.
Ubamadu noted that this plant will go a long way in addressing most of the illnesses at the primary level saying that oxygen is a critical element that will enable doctors to deal with diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, and other non-communicable diseases.
“By donating these PSA generators USAID is fulfilling its commitment to support the strengthening of Kenya’s health care system, support the expansion of its primary healthcare goals, and continue to improve health outcomes for Kenyans so that they can lead prosperous fulfilling lives,” said USAID mission deputy director Ubamadu.
“This commissioning today is one of five oxygen plants that the US government is spending about 3.4million dollars because we believe in the health of the people of Kenya. This 3.4million dollars comes from a small portion of over 3.5 billion dollars that the US government spent on Covid and obviously we know that one of the challenges of Covid is lack of oxygen,” he added.
He further noted that the oxygen plant comes with a two years’ service agreement by the USAID and US government noting that if well maintained it can last up to 20 years.
Nandi County governor Stephen Sang affirmed that the Oxygen equipment had been installed, tested and has been running in the last two weeks noting that as a County they are excited to be one of the five Counties that benefitted from the donation.
“Today as a County government we are privileged to receive a much valued development support. We have received a donation of this oxygen plant from the American people. The equipment is up and running thus will be supplying oxygen to Nandi Hills hospital as well as across the various hospitals in the County,” said governor Sang.
Sang added that the new facility will go a long way in boosting the oxygen that has had a down time in the last two years due to overuse noting that this is a much-needed addition to the oxygen ecosystem within the County.
He gave a commitment that beyond the two years’ service agreement by USAID as a County they will provide and enter into another service agreement again to ensure the life span of the oxygen facility is achieved as a measure to ensure the oxygen supply is sufficient in the next 20 years.
The governor further said that with the capacity of cylinder that the facility is capable of filling they will be able to extend the oxygen supply to the neighbouring Counties thus save a lot of lives.
He noted that the County government has a component of piping the oxygen to the bed side that will be accomplished within a period of three months at the Kapsabet referral hospital as well as Nandi Hills hospital as a way to cover the oxygen demand in the County.
“When we had our facility going down we had to source oxygen from Kisumu. This facility commissioned today will help us save about Sh400000 that was being used to purchase oxygen and to refill our oxygen cylinders. As we make that saving we will be committed to invest in our health care systems particularly on the primary health care services,” pointed out Sang.
Nandi County built its first PSA oxygen plant generating 240 litres per minute at Kapsabet County Referral Hospital in 2018.
By Ruth Mainye
