By Charles Katabalwa
14th June 2021
The Mulago National referral Hospital has refuted allegations that it has run out of oxygen supply, one of the essential treatment requirements to Covid-19 patients under intensive care unit.
Dr. Byarugaba Baterana, the Executive Director of the Hospital told the media this Monday at Mulago that currently the hospital has four (4) newly functional oxygen plants generating 2083 liters of oxygen per minute and two (2) more additional plants are being upgraded to meet the demand and they are in process with ministry of health to install a 70 meters cubic plant which will be completed within the next 2 weeks.
Byarugaba adds that currently the hospital has less than 200 Covid-19 patients who need oxygen yet they can serve up to 900 patients under normal circumstances.
He has revealed that non Covid-19 patients consume between 1 to 10 liters of oxygen per minute and yet for Covid-19 patients can go up to 70 liters per minute which high consumption levels cause panic high and forces the oxygen pressures to fall in some units especially ICU that requires high pressure.
However Byarugaba said currently the hospital requires about 100 cylinders per day but due to the increased demand for oxygen in the country it is sometimes difficult to meet the demand.
In the meantime he calls upon all Ugandans to adopt preventive measures through observing SOPs in order to reduce on the numbers of patients seeking for hospitalization.
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