Coordinated efforts by various stakeholder agencies have helped the State achieve self-sufficiency in Oxygen production during the second wave of COVID-19 itself, Health Minister Veena George has said.
Inaugurating an oxygen-production unit at the Ranni taluk hospital on Sunday, Ms. George said the unit had the capacity to produce 333 litres of oxygen. According to her, the number of people relying on the Ranni taluk hospital has been on the rise. Against this backdrop, the hospital, which also serves the Sabarimala pilgrims, is set to witness more development activities.
“Administrative sanction has been given for the construction of a new block at the Ranni hospital at ₹15.6 crore. An amount of ₹75 lakh has been sanctioned for the implementation of the target scheme in hospitals, including Ranni. Steps will be taken to allocate more funds for this project, if required,” said the Minister.
The plant was established using ₹1.25 crore provided by an organisation named Doctors for You. The infrastructure was set up using ₹12 lakh provided by the Ranni block panchayat.
Ranni legislator Pramod Narayan was present.
Konni medical college
Meanwhile, administrative sanction for ₹6.75 crore has been given to Government Medical College, Konni, for the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment, including ₹4.95-crore worth 128-slice CT scans in the radio diagnostics wing, a laparoscopic system worth ₹63.88 lakh and a CM image intensifier worth ₹38.65 lakh.