Gurgaon: Six of the seven pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants installed at govt health facilities in the city during the pandemic are now non-functional. Several districts have lost their entire installed PSA capacity.A PSA oxygen system is a device that produces high-purity oxygen by separating it from the surrounding air.Govt has attributed the failures to a combination of equipment and maintenance problems.The plants were installed during Covid-19 to strengthen oxygen generation infrastructure at govt hospitals and ensure availability of medical oxygen at health facilities.At Civil Hospital in Sector 10 — which has three PSA plants — two are non-functional, according to Haryana govt data tabled in the state assembly.At sub-divisional Civil Hospital in Pataudi, both installed plants are non-functional. The single plants at SD Civil Hospital in Sohna and Polyclinic in Sector 31 are non-functional.The problem is not confined to Gurgaon. Haryana had installed 79 PSA oxygen plants at govt hospitals during Covid through PM CARES, CSR initiatives and other sources. Of these, 23 are currently functional while 56 are non-functional.Health minister Arti Singh Rao said the non-functional plants were affected by “mechanical and technical problems, non-availability of spare parts, non-standardisation of service costs and exorbitant repair costs quoted by the vendors.”The explanation indicates that the plants are being taken out of service not for a single reason. Mechanical and technical faults have been compounded by difficulties in sourcing spare parts and servicing the equipment. Govt has also cited differences in service costs and high repair estimates from vendors.Health department officials in the city told TOI that a centralised tender for operationalisation of the non-functional oxygen plants has been floated. “This will restore the non-functional units in the city,” an official said.As for districts, Rewari has all four of its plants non-functional, while Mewat has seven of eight non-functional. Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadri, Hansi, Jind, Kaithal, Palwal, Panipat and Sirsa have no functional PSA plant listed in govt data.Some districts, however, continue to have a substantial portion of their plants operational. Faridabad has three functional plants out of six, while Narnaul has two of three working. Karnal has three functional plants out of six, Sonipat has two of three and Yamunanagar has two of three operational.
