The World Health Organization (WHO) has published new .
The guidance, following extensive global collaboration, is available via the WHO website or MAGICapp. Enhanced features include ‘practical info’ boxes to help with planning efforts.
Martha Gartley, Consultant at the WHO, said, “While the guidance is not a package of tools, it aims to serve as a comprehensive repository of references and resources, and country-specific examples to best support member states in developing their national medical oxygen scale-up plans.”
Source: WHO
A second presentation from Laura Alejandro Velez Ruiz Gaitan, Senior Researcher at the WHO, outlined the technical specifications for medical oxygen systems, covering oxygen generator plants, cylinder filling stations and containerised housing as well as oxygen storage.
She said it is working on a self-inspection checklist for oxygen generation systems installed in health facilities. Many systems installed following COVID-19 were implemented without clarity in quality assurance and quality control.
National oxygen scale up frameworks were formalised at the Dakar meeting last year.
Leith Greenslade, Coordinator at the Every Breath Counts Coalition, recently talked about the sector’s outlook on gasworld’s Medical Gases: Oxygen and Beyond webinar.
She outlined positive steps such as Global Gases partnering with Nigeria on its medical oxygen development, and the first wholly owned liquid oxygen plant recently launched in Kenya, but expressed concerns about the lack of competition in the liquid industry. “Many countries are at the mercy of one player – it’s a monopoly,” she said.
Increased foreign investment is a goal we need to work on, she added.
Novair recently announced a strategic partnership with American Oxygen to commercialise new Medical Ceramic Oxygen Generation (M-COG) technology, which was pioneered at NASA. “Maybe in 20 or 30 years, this will totally revolutionise the way oxygen is generated in low-resource settings,” she said.
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