By: Olajide Toriola
Ogun State Government has said that the importance of oxygen in the hospitals could not be over-emphasized, as virtually every patient’s room in a modern hospital was equipped for the administration of oxygen.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, made this known while playing host to the Team of Australian and management of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, on the “Scale Up of Effective Oxygen System in Ogun State”, held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Ipaye, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Hospital Management Board, Dr. Ayinde Adesanya, noted that oxygen was far the most important necessity of human life and it performed hundreds of tasks in the body, which most two essential in life were energy production and detoxification.
He noted that production of energy in the body was accomplished by the combination of glucose with oxygen, producing ATP, which the body make amounts of ATP equivalent to body weight every twenty four hours, noting that if someone make 10 percent less ATP than normal, it would felt tired and sluggish.
He said another important function of oxygen was to combine with metabolic waste products to allow their elimination from the body, saying that the process was called the “Oxidation Reduction Cycle”, and when sufficient oxygen was available, the detoxification process slowdown, waste pile up, circulation becomes sluggish, oxygen was prevented from reaching the cells and disease result.
In the same vein, the leader of the Team, Dr. Hamish Graham said the life-saving oxygen therapy and pulse oximetry was poorly available to patients in Nigeria hospitals which usually leads to untimely death of some patients in the public and private hospitals across the country.
He emphasized the needs for the hospitals in the country to procure oxygen in all health facilities in order to minimize the sudden death of patients in hospitals, noting that success of the Nigerian oxygen implementation project was to partner with private, international donors in fast-tracking the procurement of the equipment.
He said oxygen was a life-saving essential medication especially for children with hypoxemia due to pneumonia, other serious infections and neonatal condition, admonishing government and private hospitals to make quick move in procurement of oxygen in all the health facilities across the country.
Graham added that all children receive oxygen therapy when they need it and pulse oximetry on every child as a routine vital sign, noting that oxygen suppose to be available 24/7 in all hospitals for every child, as long as needed.
