By Cathy Godfrey
KATIMA MULILO, 4 May – The Welsh government has funded four major medical oxygen production plants valued at over N$20 million for northern parts of Namibia, and on Monday handed over the one at Katima Mulilo.
The oxygen plants are a result of international collaboration between Cardiff University and the University of Namibia, in the Phoenix Project, which was undertaken in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS)
Health Minister, Dr. Kalumbi Shangula, said that the trauma of the pandemic over the past two years has taught people to pull together in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity for humanity to confront and defeat Covid-19 collectively. Joining the efforts of governments, various stakeholders including tertiary education institutions have come on board to strengthen responses to the pandemic.
He continued that despite various efforts to combat the pandemic through information, education, and communication (IEC) materials, and other literature, to educate about the important benefits of getting vaccinated, vaccine uptake remains low, by 26 April 2022 only 27% of the nation‘s population was fully vaccinated against the set target of 60% of those aged 12 years and above. This unfortunately results in the loss of precious Namibian lives and indicates the fight against Covid-19 is not over.
He concluded by saying an oxygen generating system, with a capacity of producing 270 litres per minute, constructed for the Katima Mulilo isolation ward by the Welsh government will go a long way towards improving the clinical management of patients suffering from Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases for which oxygen therapy is required. Medical oxygen is one of the biggest life-saving interventions that any hospital needs, hence, the significance of this generous donation.
The idea to set up oxygen production plants was formed during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-2021. The Phoenix Project and Unam’s corporate social responsibility programme, Unam Cares, took up the responsibility to support the MoHSS through 13 public health education roadshows across Namibia.
The roadshows ran from May to November 2021 and it was during this period that the public aired their concerns that the MoHSS needed assistance to supply sufficient medical oxygen in the health facilities across the country.
Under this fund, Unam also managed to successfully train 217 nurses in oxygen therapy and ventilation case management. Two (Katima Mulilo and Grootfontein) of the four oxygen production plants have been installed and were ready for handover. The one for Nkurekuru hospital has not yet been finalised. The Katima Mulilo plant has been installed to service the Covid-19 isolation unit. – Namibia Daily News
