AKTH to establish oxygen manufacturing plant

The Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) has concluded arrangements for the establishment of oxygen manufacturing plant in hospital to eliminate the challenges of sourcing the element from private investors outside.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Professor Aminu Mohammed Zakari disclosed this when he received the monitoring and evaluation team of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), led by its Managing Director, Engineer Chidi Izuwah on an inspection visit of PPP projects in the hospital.

Professor Zakari also revealed that all procurement processes had been concluded for the take-off of the plant.
He said the hospital was only awaiting the approval of the Federal Executive Council on recommendation of ICRC, while describing oxygen as a basic necessity for saving lives.

“Oxygen of course is a life-saving item, and it is very essential in the management of patients in the hospitals. Presently the practice is for us to carry oxygen cylinders to go to oxygen manufacturing plants in the city to procure oxygen for use on the patients in various wards.

“So, acquiring this in-house within the hospital premises will ease the stress of going out to source for it and will also reduce the risk of explosion while handling cylinders.

“For the project we have already finished the procurement process, we established a joint venture with a company Oasis Gases Investment Limited, we’ve done the outline business plan and we are awaiting approval from the ICRC and subsequent approval from the Federal Executive Council,” Professor Zakari said.

In his address, the DG ICRC, Engr Izuwah reiterated the commitment of the commission to ensuring that all bottlenecks delaying the take-off of the project are eliminated, emphasizing the need for the plant to enable the hospital deliver its statutory responsibility efficiently.

“Health is wealth, oxygen is very crucial for medical processes from surgery to people with all sort of problems, so there is need, most hospitals around the world are building oxygen plants and this is done at public private partnership.

“The reason of visiting here is to say that this plant is needed yesterday, you see there is sense of urgency about it, so why I come here today is to identify what and what do we need to do in collaboration with all stakeholders to ensure that this plant is done now and to ensure that we improve what we have and then safeguard the lives of Nigerians. When this plant is built here it will save people lives, it will improve medical care delivery,” Izuwah said.