How Covid-19 Related Medical Oxygen Equipment is Useful To Increase Oxygen Access
                     How Covid-19 Related Medical 
Oxygen Equipment is Useful To 
Increase Oxygen Access
  
 Context
Decades of conflict and fragility have 
left Somalia with huge challenges. 
Despite several transitional 
governments, militant groups control 
large swathes of the country, with the 
majority of the population living under 
imminent security threats.  The country 
is also besieged by natural disasters, 
drought and food insecurity.
Sadly, it is no surprise that Somalia’s 
health indicators are among the worst in 
the world – with life expectancy at just 
56 years. The country has the highest 
under five mortality rate, the second 
highest newborn mortality rate and the 
sixth highest maternal mortality ratio 
globally. More than 60,000 children die 
every year, mostly from preventable 
diseases. 
  
Covid-19 Readiness Plan
As hospitals begin building new  
preparedness plans and preparing for 
potential patient surges due to the 
Covid-19 pandemic, medical oxygen 
and gas manufacturers are feeling the 
pressure, and engineers are working 
around the clock to develop custom 
systems to fit the needs of each 
hospital. MTS is working with 14 
manufacturers to meet these 
demands, and have already 
developed custom medical oxygen 
systems for portable and modular 
emergency shelters.
  
Scaling up oxygen and the WHO 
Inventory Tool
 There is a severe shortage of 
medical oxygen in Somalia. Bedside 
oxygen concentrators are scarce, 
with too few oxygen generation 
plants for filling cylinders. Where 
oxygen does exist, it is very 
expensive – with private suppliers 
charging around $100 USD for a large 
cylinder of oxygen. The one UN base 
producing oxygen cannot meet the 
demand for this scarce commodity.
To plan for the surge in demand for 
oxygen during the pandemic, the 
WHO Somalia country office worked 
with the Federal Ministry  o f Health to 
design and implement a strategy to 
scale up oxygen. 
  
The first step was to gather data. 
Once the data was gathered the scale 
up of oxygen was tackled in two 
phases.
Phase 1: Pulse Oximeters and Oxygen 
Concentrators
 The first phase focused on the 
procurement of pulse oximeters and 
 oxy ge n concentrators to tackle immediate needs – and to save more lives. Somalia received 76 oxygen 
concentrators to support case 
management; monitoring equipment 
such as pulse-oximeters; and medical 
consumables for oxygen delivery. 
These technologies were also a better 
fit with the skill sets of Somalia health 
workers, as just 23% of facilities 
surveyed had staff trained in 
mechanical ventilation and intubation.  
  
Phase 2: PSA Oxygen Generation 
Plants 
 The second phase will focus on 
bolstering oxygen supply with 
Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) 
plants, which were already 
under consideration prior to the 
COVID-19 response.  
 Three plants were procured – 
for two facilities in Mogadishu 
and one in Hargeisa – with 
dedicated power generators 
(based on EU funding). To house 
these units, the WHO country 
office worked with UN engineers 
on innovative solutions to 
‘containerise’ this oxygen (using 
similar technology to the high-
security containers that most 
UN staff lived in). These ‘plug-
and-play’ installations will serve 
three hospitals. 
  
Next Steps – Long-term
 Oxygen is a smart investment. If 
we invest now it will help in the 
future. We will closely monitor 
and learn from this process and 
continue to replicate good 
practice to scale up PSA plants 
across the country.
As one of the top med gas 
supplier’s in the country, Medical 
Testing Solutions continues to 
outshine the competition. From 
our robust ePecurment platform 
for ordering, invoicing, billing and 
more MTS is your solution for 
medical gas supply. Through our 
vast network of customers, 
 expanding across th e United 
States, our pricing structure 
allows us to offer the lowest 
pricing guaranteed!
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