News

Oct 28, 2024

Health Sector Boost: Sierra Leone’s Health Sector and $50M Oxygen Plant Factory - Dubawa

The global oxygen economy is said to grow from $39.28 billion in 2023 to $44.3 billion at an annual growth rate of 12.8%, yet Sierra Leone’s contribution to that economy is negligible. Sierra Leone’s

The global oxygen economy is said to grow from $39.28 billion in 2023 to $44.3 billion at an annual growth rate of 12.8%, yet Sierra Leone’s contribution to that economy is negligible.

Sierra Leone’s closest neighbours, Guinea and Liberia, have at least one factory producing and distributing oxygen to different health facilities in the Mano River Union countries. It has been a long wait for Sierra Leone to boast of its oxygen plant factory in the region.

An oxygen plant will undoubtedly improve the country’s poor health care facilities, which the BMZ’s health care data rated as occupying 184th out of 193 countries in a recent health care rating.

The limited production and/or access to oxygen for patients with heart pressure—has been largely the cause of death of dozens of Sierra Leoneans. However, it is difficult to get concrete data regarding the exact number of patients who have died over the years as a result of insufficient access to oxygen plants in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone–a country popular among nations with the poorest health infrastructure, has been through serious public health situations, making it very difficult for people with challenging “heart issues” to wonder if they would see another day. In most cases, they do not.

Thus, the idea of establishing the $50 million first oxygen plant in Sierra Leone to complement the country’s health sector, more so for patients with chronic heart issues, is good news for the general public.

The factory, which will be the first of its kind in Sierra Leone is presently under construction at Kerry Town, in the outskirts of the capital city of Freetown.

A report indicates that a Turkish company supports the oxygen factory under a ‘Build, Operate, and Transfer’ contract agreement. This agreement would see the Turkish company foot the bills for the construction of the factory’s physical infrastructure, running and managing the administration of the factory for some years, and then transferring the entire factory to the State and the people of Sierra Leone.

Due to the significance of oxygen to patients with severe heart complications in the country, DUBAWA developed interest in finding out the impact of such a factory on Sierra Leone’s health sector from an expert’s perspective.

Dr Abdul Aziz Suma, a medical doctor, disclosed that an Oxygen plant is a special facility that produces large amounts of oxygen gas. It does this by taking in regular air and a mixture of different gases and separating the oxygen so it can be used in hospitals and industries.

He added that the process involves filtering and purifying the air to remove unwanted gases like nitrogen, leaving behind almost pure oxygen for use by healthcare facilities.

Dr Suma noted the importance of such a factory in the country can’t be overemphasised.

He added that the factory would seriously help improve treatment for Sierra Leoneans and foreigners encountering heart challenges nationwide.

“The newly announced $50 million oxygen factory under construction in Kerry Town is expected to—significantly boost the country’s health sector by ensuring a stable supply of medical oxygen to health care facilities in Sierra Leone.

“The oxygen factory will reduce dependence on imported oxygen cylinders and support more hospitals and healthcare facilities in the country to aptly manage citizens in emergencies and critical health situations that require Oxygen support to stay awake or alive,” Suma explained.

He noted that Sierra Leone currently has a limited number of oxygen machines, stating that one of the few oxygen machines available in the country is located at the Makeni Regional Hospital in the North of the Country.

Suma expressed that the presence of these plants has been very important in supplying medical-grade oxygen to patients in critical health situations.

“In facilities like Makeni Regional Hospital, where I work for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, these plants are essential for treating life-threatening conditions such as heart failure, severe pneumonia, and other serious medical conditions that require consistent and high-purity oxygen supply,” he added.

“Unfortunately, data on the amount of oxygen the country needed in the bid to address the oxygen needs of the over seven million population is currently not available due to the poor data collection mechanism in the country,” Suma indicated, adding that a good number of health facilities don’t have data reflecting the same.

Dr Suma, however, provided “a ballpark calculation” regarding the amount of oxygen Sierra Leone needs to meet its citizens’ numerous health needs.

“Assuming the oxygen demand and supply infrastructure is in place, Sierra Leone needs approximately 2.4 million litres daily.

Here is a ballpark calculation:

“Steps for the Ballpark Calculation:

I. Population:

Sierra Leone’s total population = 8.6 million

II. Hospital Beds in Sierra Leone:

According to available data, Sierra Leone has about 0.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people (totalling around 3,400 beds).

III. Oxygen-Requiring Patients:

Assume 20% of hospitalised patients require oxygen, which would be about 680 patients on oxygen therapy daily.

IV. Oxygen Consumption:

If each patient requires 5 litres per minute (LPM) for 12 hours a day, 5 LPM×60 minutes × 12 hours = 3,600 litres per day per patient.

V. Total Daily Oxygen Requirement:

Multiply the number of patients needing oxygen by their daily consumption: 680 patients × 3,600 litres/day = 2,448,000 litres/day.

“Thus, a rough estimate of the daily oxygen requirement for health needs in Sierra Leone is approximately 2.4 million litres per day” — he noted.

Acquisition of Oxygen by health facilities in Sierra Leone

According to medical experts, acquiring oxygen from many health centres in the small West African nation is a huge challenge that has existed for ages.

However, he noted that some health facilities in the country, like the hospital he works for in the North, can manufacture oxygen for patients with heart challenges.

He said that when the new factory begins full-scale operations, it will certainly manufacture and evenly distribute oxygen in large amounts to meet the needs of Sierra Leoneans with bad heart issues.

Will the factory be able to manufacture the required amount of oxygen to meet Sierra Leone’s health demands?

“Certainly, I can’t give any projection of the amount of oxygen the factory would be producing for distribution to the numerous health facilities in the country. But, I am optimistic that the Oxygen plant factory will be in a good position to significantly produce and distribute enough oxygen in the bid to boost Sierra Leone’s limited production of oxygen for heart failure patients in the various health facilities nationwide,” Dr Suma said.

He stated further that the oxygen used in the country by different health facilities is largely imported from countries with advanced health facilities, including the US, Ghana, the UK, and South Africa. However, a handful of private health centres in the country can boast of their oxygen manufacturing machines/plants.

He added that the unavailability of enough oxygen in different health facilities has been a huge challenge that has been troubling Sierra Leone for ages. He said that with the presence of the all-important oxygen manufacturing factory, the country’s oxygen needs would be addressed adequately going forward.

In explaining the possible challenges he believes the new Oxygen factory will likely encounter, Dr Suma revealed that skilled personnel with the knowledge to operate and maintain the Oxygen facilities will be one of the challenges.

According to Dr Suma, maintaining oxygen plants is a serious challenge. The situation regarding the limited status of oxygen has resulted in the country’s inconsistent production and supply of oxygen.

“If the Oxygen factory must operate properly, the imminent challenges should be attended to in the shortest possible time,” he said.

Amidst the possible challenges the factory will surely encounter in the course of operations, he noted that with the right training and technical support from both the government and the factory’s technical team, things will pan out well.

He advised that the country’s medical personnel should be equipped and develop their capacities to keep such a critical health facility running smoothly.

Sharing his personal experience with patients with heart challenges, Dr Suma said:

“At Makeni Regional Hospital ICU, I have personally attended to patients needing oxygen support. During these critical moments, I used an oxygen concentrator and cylinders to stabilise these patients.”

He added that, though the smaller oxygen-producing machines were helpful in resuscitating patients in dire need of air/oxygen, they cannot fully replace the capacity and reliability of a large oxygen plant.

He said that the amount and level of oxygen needed by medical facilities in the country couldn’t be attained by mere oxygen cylinders, and the plant would be the best option that would significantly help to save people with severe heart issues in the country.

Mohamed Lamin, 32, a heart-pressure patient, narrated to DUBAWA how an Oxygen plant saved him from death: “…if not for the Oxygen plant in the private hospital I was taken to when I got an attack, I would’ve been a ‘dead man’ by now.

Yealie Bangura, a private CHO nurse in Freetown, also told DUBAWA that the oxygen plant is a great boost to the country’s health sector, stating that the presence of an Oxygen factory will greatly help citizens with heart issues to always access readily prepared oxygen.

She noted that the unavailability of Oxygen factories in the country has led to the ‘untimely death’ of a good number of patients with heart challenges.

“For example, in my previous health facility where I worked as CHO at the Dwarzack Community Health facility, I experienced a couple of patients with severe heart challenges who lost their lives as a result of the unavailability of ready-made oxygen in the facility,” she told DUBAWA.

Ms Bangura noted that with the Oxygen plant factory in the country, many Sierra Leoneans dying as a result of insufficient oxygen cylinders in the different health facilities will be minimised or, better yet, bring the sad situation to an end in Sierra Leone.

“When I heard of the news of the oxygen plant factory under construction in Kerry Town, I was so happy because I have directly felt the pains of losing my dad who was a heart pressure patient,” Mahmud Dumbya, 35–a public servant—narrated his ordeal with regards to the unavailability of oxygen machines in different health facilities in Sierra Leone.

Dumbuya added that the significance of the said factory to every heart challenge patient in the country can’t be downplayed, stating further that his dad would not have died had the oxygen plant factory been in operation some 3 to 5 years ago.

For the smooth functioning of the Oxygen factory in Sierra Leone, Dr Abdul A. Suma recommended.

Have qualified technicians on-site who are well-trained in operating and troubleshooting oxygen plant equipment. If there are no local experts, consider establishing partnerships with external specialists for training.

Provide comprehensive training for plant operators, biomedical engineers, and maintenance staff. Training should include plant operations, safety protocols, and emergency management.

Train clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, on the basics of oxygen production and how to identify issues early. This cross-functional knowledge ensures that clinical and technical teams can collaborate effectively to keep the system operational

Dr Abdul Aziz Suma told DUBAWA that in cases of outbreaks like COVID-19 or increased pneumonia cases, the oxygen demand could spike significantly.“Until the oxygen factory commences operations on a full scale in Sierra Leone, the challenge of ‘sufficient amounts of oxygen’ to meet the needs of Sierra Leoneans still remains a huge challenge to deal with,” he said.