Covid-19 patients sharing oxygen tanks: Doc

National

FORTY Coronavirus (Covid-19) patients admitted at the Goroka Hospital are dependent on a supply of oxygen and have to share equipment, an official says.
Acting incident manager Dr Chris Ope said the hospital’s isolation ward was full with 16 staff members managing the Covid-19 facility.
“We are hoping to increase the numbers of accessories so we can have one patient to one oxygen tank. We are using oxygen concentrators to deliver oxygen to the patients. The management has taken on board another 30 clinical staff (to be used) in the emergency department and the Covid-19 centre.
“Several staff members have tested positive for the Covid-19 mostly from the main hospital.
“Our staff are very emotional and it is something we all experience. The second wave was okay. This wave is overwhelming us as we are trying to maintain services,” Ope said.
“We are operating about 40 gas cylinders per day at the moment. We are limited to the number of oxygen accessories that we have. There is no stock available.” The main supplier BOC said they should have new oxygen accessories arriving from Australia.
“We just received 20 from a company in Port Moresby, so we are using that on top of the oxygen concentrators we have now,” Ope said.