The production of medical oxygen necessary for saving patients on Ivl is limited by bureaucratic barriers

The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that in 20 regions of the country there are difficulties with the presence of oxygen. Among them are Moscow, Tver, Omsk, Kaluga and Tyumen regions.

“We have information from several regions - there are about 20 of them, and we interviewed as soon as we received the first signal about problems with the presence of a sufficient amount of medical oxygen, all 85 subjects, and we see that there is a certain imbalance in the presence of medical oxygen,” Manturov said.

According to him, the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the regions and medical facilities is now working on the supply of medical oxygen in manual mode. The head of the ministry also said that a number of regions did not give relevant requests to medical oxygen producers in a timely manner.

Why is oxygen to hospitals?

Light damage is one of the common complications from coronavirus, in which oxygen support is often necessary for patients. Last week, in the city hospital No. 20 of Rostov-on-Don, 13 patients suffocated due to interruptions in the supply of oxygen. The city authorities almost immediately denied this message and assured that there were no emergency situations in medical institutions. Despite the statement of the Rostov authorities, the regional Roszdravnadzor initiated an audit in this hospital.

“On behalf of the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko, the territorial body of Roszdravnadzor in the Rostov region will check the cause of death of 13 patients with Covid-19 in the city hospital of Rostov-on-Don, who, according to the media report, did not have enough oxygen,” the Roszdravnadzor report.

A few days after the appearance of information about failures in the supply of oxygen, the Investigative Committee said that he would begin to look for the one who reported this problem.

The doctor of an anesthetist-resuscitator Arthur Toporov, who was on duty on October 11 in the monastery, opened on the basis of the city hospital No. 20, said, including in Novaya Gazeta, that there really were problems with oxygen in the medical institution.

After the statements of Arthur Toporov appeared in the media, Tatyana Bykovskaya left the post of Minister of Health of the Rostov Region. The regional government reported that she left the post in connection with retirement.

Then the administration of Rostov-on-Don announced the dismissal of the head of the health department of the city of Nadezhda Levitskaya, and on October 30, the UK confirmed the initiation of the case of the death of five patients in hospital No. 20.

The tragedy in the Rostov hospital led to the fact that oxygen problems began to be reported everywhere. Oleg Kozyrev, the head of Lubergaz, who supplies medical oxygen to Moscow hospitals, wrote a letter to the first deputy minister of industry Sergei Tsybu with a complaint that

From October 26, all oxygen supplies to hospitals may stop due to the complete absence of raw materials.

“With the beginning of the“ second wave ”, very large difficulties arose with suppliers of oxygen of liquid technical (KZHT), which, apparently, decided to take the opportunity and squeeze us from the market in this way,” he said in his letter.

Then Kozyrev told RBC that after writing, the problem with the supply of oxygen was solved.

In the city of Zlatoust of the Chelyabinsk region, doctors also began to complain about the lack of oxygen and personal protective equipment.

“The situation is such that specialists working in the department for coronavirus patients in Zlatoust have a tough lack of the most necessary: ​​protective costumes, personal protective equipment, water. The department urgently needs material and technical means for rapid response and surgical treatment. And this is only a part of what both doctors and patients need. Given the specifics of competitive procedures, the acquisition and replenishment takes place for a long time. And you need to act much faster, ”wrote the former head of the city Vyacheslav Zhilin on his Facebook page.

However, the first vice-governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Irina Gekht, denied this information and called the actions of Zhilin “wrecking”.

Another consequence of the Rostov incident was the statement of the Ministry of Health that doctors should coordinate any comments and public information about the coronavirus with the press service of the ministry.

After this statement of the ministry, more and more doctors are afraid to talk with journalists. Most of the doctors associated with the “new” refused to answer questions about the lack of oxygen in the hospitals where they work.

“You yourself know about the fact that the Ministry of Health forbade us. Almost everywhere everything is bad. I can’t say that patients directly die without air, as in Rostov, but I know that there are problems with oxygen ” -

She told the "new" nurse of one of the Moscow hospitals, who asked to remain anonymous.

How the authorities are trying to solve the problem

Roszdravnadzor said that he would request information about the needs of healthcare institutions in medical oxygen, about its possible deficit in some constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Also, against the background of reports about the lack of oxygen, the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested data on the possibility of oxygen production in metallurgical companies. This was previously announced RBC with reference to his sources in large metallurgical companies.

“In order to analyze the production of technical oxygen, which can be considered as a potential production reserve, including for the supply of raw materials for the subsequent production of medical oxygen, the Ministry of Industry and Trade requested data from a number of metallurgical enterprises,” the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade confirmed this information.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Russian industry has free power production facilities for oxygen. A number of large enterprises are completely loaded by only 20%.

The first deputy minister of industry, Sergei Tsyb, according to RBC, held a meeting with representatives of metallurgical companies. However, the source of the “Novy”, close to the Russian metallurgical industry, said that the chicken was not met with metallurgists, but with gas producers.

Hospital needs medical oxygen that meets the requirements of GOST No. 5583-78, and metallurgical plants produce technological oxygen, which is used to produce cast iron and steel. Medical oxygen differs from technological oxygen with the norms of impurities of carbon monoxide, acids and ozone.

However, metallurgical companies are able to produce oxygen necessary for patients with coronavirus. For this, they need a license,

But, according to the report of the Medical Herald, the process of receiving it can be stretched for two years. The director of Vita LLC Anatoly Ekashev said that it took almost two years and one and a half million rubles to receive registration oxygen from his company.

“Mostly oxygen is produced in a gaseous state. Such oxygen cannot be used for medical purposes. It may contain impurities and pose a danger to people. But gas in liquid form is quite suitable for medical purposes. Several years ago, officials tightened the licensing rules for the production of medical oxygen, ”the source of Novaya said.

He also confirmed that obtaining a license is a very long process, so many metallurgical companies do not have the opportunity to engage in it, despite the fact that they have capacities in order to start the production of medical oxygen.

According to the Creon publication, after the introduction of restrictive measures due to coronavirus in April, sales of technical gases sank by 30%. Therefore, many gas production companies want to get a license and switch to the medical sector.

The licensing of the production of medical oxygen in the country is engaged in the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The ministry confirmed that there are manufacturers who are ready, if necessary to put into operation, additional installations for the production of medical oxygen: “There are also reserve capacities - at the meeting of the meeting, manufacturers confirmed that, if necessary, additional installations for the production of medical oxygen are ready, in turn, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will help with their operational licensing”.

The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov, at a meeting with reporters, said that already six specialized companies have submitted relevant applications to receive a license, and one of them will receive it on Monday.