Andhra Pradesh: PSA oxygen plants must in private hospitals

Amaravati: The state government on Friday made it mandatory for private hospitals and nursing homes to install Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) technology oxygen plants in proportion to their bed strength.

Principal secretary (health) Anil Kumar Singhal issued an order, amending the Andhra Pradesh Allopathic Private Medical Care Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Rules, 2007, and prescribing the minimum standards for equipment and furniture for hospitals based on the bed strength.

Every hospital with more than 100 beds will have to install a 1,000 Litres Per Minute (LPM) PSA oxygen plant and those with 50 beds, a 500 LPM plant, according to the order.

The hospitals should also have oxygen concentrators equal in number to the oxygen-supported beds. The private hospitals are also required to have oxygen masks with regulators in equal numbers.

"During the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, the government supplied oxygen even to private hospitals. But they charged their own rates from the patients. Now we are making it mandatory for them to install their own PSA plants so that they will be self-sufficient," a senior health official said.

The industries department of the state government is working out a plan to extend a 30 per cent subsidy to the private healthcare establishments for installing the PSA oxygen plants.

"The Chief Minister approved this proposal and the modalities are being worked out," the official added.