By Neo Kolane
A $1.5 million (M28, 000,000) liquid oxygen hub was officially unveiled at Mafeteng Hospital on Wednesday this week.
The facility, which was bankrolled by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), will provide medical oxygen to the hospital and other surrounding health facilities in other districts.
The hub comprises a liquid oxygen tank and a cylinder filling station, among others. It will help reduce mishaps like death and disabilities that might otherwise be caused by shortage of oxygen.
Speaking at the inauguration of the facility on Wednesday this week, the Mafeteng district medical officer, Mpho Seleke, said medical oxygen was identified as a critical part of governments’ efforts to achieve provision of critical and emergency care services.
“The COVID-19 pandemic not only exposed the need for reliable medical oxygen supply, but we got to appreciate the devastation of providing medical treatment without it.
“To date, we have recorded 77 deaths in Mafeteng, but the figure could be five times higher because we were actually a COVID-19 referral centre. What we can say for sure is that the deaths were mainly due to the unavailability of oxygen,” Seleke noted.
The director of health services, Dr ‘Nyane Letsie, said the centre seeks to improving health services within the ministry’s different facilities.
Letsie indicated that the hospital will produce its own medical oxygen, which will also be supplied to health facilities in Mohale’s Hoek, Qacha’s Nek and Quthing.
She pointed out that oxygen is needed mostly at clinics where nurses first meet with patients who have different diseases.
“COVID-19 has pushed us to strengthen health services and we worked hard to achieve this.
“Besides COVID-19, oxygen is needed for newly born babies with pneumonia or other respiratory and critical illnesses, pregnant mothers, surgical patients.
“Blindness caused by brain injury during a baby’s birth sometimes occurs when the baby’s oxygen supply is severely interrupted,” she said.
Letsie added that the production of oxygen and providing it to other health facilities would lessen deaths including those of newly born babies and their mothers.
“The referral system will strengthen as well as the services. At clinics there will always be services provided, and our ambulances which didn’t have oxygen will now have it,” she added.
World Health Organisation (WHO) representative Richard Banda echoed the same sentiments.
He said the availability of medical oxygen can be a difference between life and death for many people.
“This initiative positions Lesotho to respond to the needs of patients requiring oxygen better and contributes to strengthening of health system.
“The country will be enabled to respond more positively to future health threats and pandemics,” Banda indicated.
The country director for CHAI Lesotho, Esther Mandara, said they are honoured to have been the implementing partner in “this transformative initiative”.
Mandara explained that the facility advises the immediate need and also guarantees resilient and robust healthcare infrastructure, ensuring that medical oxygen is available when and where it is needed the most.
Prime Minister, Sam Matekane said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the lack of access to medical oxygen in Lesotho and challenges in the supply chain of this commodity.
Matekane said health facilities saw an influx of ill patients, leading to an increase in oxygen demand but at the time, the country could not meet the demand.
“The ministry of health in collaboration with partners, embarked on strengthening the national oxygen supplies. This is in line with the Draft National Emergency Medical Referral Policy which consists of the Oxygen Strategy and its Scale-Up Plan and the National Critical Care Strategy,” he stated.
The sustainability of this infrastructure is dependent on the ministry, healthcare professionals, the communities around the establishment, the recipient districts, and the Basotho nation as a whole, Matekane added.
