Recently, an inspection of Cryogenic Medical Oxygen Facility has been done at Nagpur based Orange City Hospital & Research Institute by Controller of Explosives, Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. Of India and endorsed the Gas safety license granted to the hospital. The PESO functions under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry to regulate and monitor the manufacture, import, export, transport possession, sale and use of explosives, petroleum products and compressed gases as envisaged under the relevant Acts. It is remarkable that only 2 or 3 hospitals in Central India have got this certification till date.
In large hospitals, medical oxygen consumption is more. It is not possible to obtain oxygen by means of transporting O2 cylinders in large numbers which is also dangerous and has chances of explosion because of wrong handling and transport. As technology advances, medical oxygen is flown through special pipelines in Emergency Room, ICUs, OTs, MRI and other high dependency units. Hence it is advisable to install a Cryogenic Medical Oxygen Unit in the premises of the hospital. Medical Oxygen stored in liquefied form having temperature below minus 1500C is considered as cryogenic gas. To install the specified cryogenic pressure vessel to store this medical oxygen at the facility, Site requires at least 150 sq. meters’ open land. Considering real estate values in Nagpur city, it is not possible and feasible for any private hospital to spare so much open land. However,
Highlighting this endeavour, Shri.Udaybhaskar Nair, Chairman- NAIRSONS Group stated that OCHRI is not a profit making enterprise for his family but has immense sentimental value attached to it. He added that all government norms should be feasibly followed. Hence when it was proposed by Dr. Anup Marar- OCHRI Director to not only have such a novel Cryogenic Oxygen facility but also get it certified by PESO wherein so much land was to be spared; Ravi Nair Hospitals Private Limited Board consisting of Dr. Usha Nair & Dr. Vidya Nair uncompromisingly agreed for the same in the larger interest of patient and staff safety.
Govt. Of India, has declared compressed gas filled in metallic container as an ‘explosives’ under Section 17 of the Explosives Act. All health care units should ideally get their Oxygen Gas facility inspected and certified by PESO in the interest of patient and staff alike.
Explotech Engineers Pvt. Ltd. Led by Shri.K.Y. Joshi provided technical expertise and constructed safe zone as per ideal parameters while Shri.Roy Thomas, OCHRI Chief General Manager executed the same at OCHRI. Dr. Deepak Dongre, OCHRI Incharge- Special Projects & Quality assisted by Dr. Priya Laddha, OCHRI Quality Officer pursued the licensing formalities. Team OCHRI thanked Shri. A.B. Tamgadge, Controller of Explosives for inspecting the premises and releasing the certificate immediately which speaks volumes about swift transparent functioning initiated by the present government led by Hon’ble Shri.Narendra Modi, Prime Minister.
This cryogenic unit was formally inaugurated by hands of Dr. Ajay Kumar Nayak, Chief of Medical Services- Western Coalfields Limited who commended Orange City Hospital and Research Institute to have spared purchased land at market value unlike many trust/ government hospitals who have got land at free/ subsidised rates and setting an ethical trend in delivering quality healthcare by installing this PESO certified Cryogenic Oxygen plant at their premises. Prominently present on this occasion were Dr.Usha Nair, Dr.Anup Marar, Dr.Vidya Nair, Roy Thomas, Simha Chalam, Sunil Sure, Priya Sashi, Prashant Tichkule and Ganesh Iyer.