Oxygen concentrators

During his recent trip to the island province, Prime Minister James Marape inspected the province’s COVID-19 isolation centre, which will be boosted to a 1000-bed isolation and treatment facility.

In addition, he presented the first of 10 oxygen cylinders. Nine more were later flown to Lorengau.

The Prime Minister shared that government has embarked on meeting outstanding work in the health sector, including assisting level 4 and level 5 hospitals with 10 oxygen concentrators each.

Australian High Commissioner, Jon Philp handed the equipment to St John, PMGH and the National Capital District Provincial Health Authority during his visit to the Taurama Aquatic Centre this morning.

“Oxygen keeps people alive and oxygen concentrators are key equipment for hospitals in helping patients to recover from COVID-19.

Australia has supplied more than 240 additional oxygen concentrators to help PNG clinicians provide life-saving care. Twenty-five of these have been delivered to this facility today,” Mr Philp said.

Since the start of the pandemic, UNOPS has procured 320 O² concentrators, with 60 distributed to health providers in Port Moresby and 260 devices allocated to health authorities across 21 provinces.

The concentrators will enable healthcare facilities to respond to the needs of patients who present with respiratory issues and require additional oxygen.