KNH gets 300 oxygen cylinders donation for Covid fight

The Kenyatta National Hospital has received a donation of 300 oxygen cylinders to boost its capacity to offer therapy to patients.

The donation from the Centre for Public Health and Development and Hewatele comes amid the war on Covid-19.

Most patients with symptoms often require oxygen in their treatment.

Even though the number of patients under critical care has continued to decline, oxygen remains a vital therapy treatment.

The number of Covid-19 patients in ICU has reduced from a 60 patients at the peak of the virus to 22 this week. Some 15 were on ventilator support and seven on supplementary oxygen.

The donation to KNH also includes oxygen piping and manifold installation, to enable safe administration at the Mbagathi Isolation facility.

This means that health workers at the isolation facility will no longer have to choose which life to save, especially because of limited oxygen supply.

The organisations further gave the hospital several accessories including one PM6800 patient monitor, 24 wall flow meters with humidifiers, 10 pulse oximeters and masks.

The donations were handed over to KNH senior director in charge of corporate services Carylus Odiango.

“Oxygen is a key component in the fight against Covid-19. The equipment will greatly assist in managing other health conditions even when Covid-19 is over,” Odiango said.

The Centre for Public Health and Development and Hewatele is also offering a training platform for frontline health workers.

They will be required to subscribe through a zoom webinar to enable virtual training. Some 1,000 health workers are targeted to be trained at a time.

“Oxygen is one of the critical gaps we’ve been dealing with to save lives. It should be affordable in order to maintain system and no patient should die due to its lack in hospital,” CPHD founder Bernard Olayo said.

The organisation’s executive director Steve Adudans expressed delight at their partnership with KNH.

“This is part of our initiative of ‘saving lives, one breath at a time,” Adudans said.

KNH, the largest regional referral hospital has continued to play a vial role in the wake of Covid-19.

Edited by P.O