May22,2023H.E Governor Nathif Commissioned Oxygen Plant at Garissa County Referral Hospital
The County Government of Garissa under the able leadership of H.E Governor Nathif Jama is continuing in its quest to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure in the county. The Governor and Jhpiego Senior Project Lead Ms. Rosemary Njogu today commissioned a state-of-the-art Sh. 27 million oxygen processing plant at the Garissa Teaching & Referral Hospital. The 283 litres per minute Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) oxygen plant funded by USAID and prepared for installation by Reaching Impact, Saturation and Epidemic control (RISE) Project, is designed to generate, supply and store medical grade oxygen from air and refill 10 cylinders every two hours. The plant is a big boost for Garissa residents in accessing quality and affordable healthcare services. The county has also received 300 new oxygen cylinders courtesy of AMREF Africa as well as ongoing oxygen piping and manifold in seven sub-county facilities across the county. Speaking after commissioning the plant, Governor Nathif Jama said the new plant supports his election promise to Garissa residents of delivering quality healthcare services at their doorstep, cutting on the baggage of doing long travels to seek for critical medical services from Nairobi and Mombasa. The Governor added that the new facility will go a long way in boosting the oxygen that has had a down time in the past years due to supply problems noting that this is a much-needed addition to the medical ecosystem within the County. He gave a commitment that beyond the two years’ service agreement by USAID, the County will provide and enter into another service agreement again to ensure the life span of the oxygen facility is achieved as a measure to ensure the oxygen supply is sufficient in the next 20 years. The governor further said that with the capacity of cylinders that the facility is capable of filling, they will be able to meet the demand from private and sub-counties facilities as well as supply the neighboring Counties thus save a lot of lives. “This facility being commissioned today will help us save over Sh600,000 that was being used to refill our oxygen cylinders every month.. As we make that saving we will be committed to invest in our health care systems particularly on the primary health care services,” he pointed out.
