Hypoxaemia associated diseases kill around 625,000 Nigerians yearly with the most affected being newborns, children less than five years and pregnant women. Africans & Diaspora
Experts have cautioned that the crisis of access to medical oxygen continues to undermine healthcare services nationally.
Daily Independent says that Dr Osahon Enabulele, immediate past President of the World Medical Association (WMA), said inadequate oxygen supply continue to be a major factor in needless fatalities despite oxygen being regarded universally as a vital treatment.
The situation was due to poor hospital infrastructure, unpredictable electricity, insufficient distribution systems, lack of maintenance of equipment and dearth of trained biomedical technicians, he said.
“Continuous electricity is needed for the proper functioning of oxygen concentrators and oxygen generation plants,” he said.
But in many public hospitals frequent power cuts result in recurrent shut down of equipment, lower efficiency and in some cases irreparable damage.
Logistics also remain a huge impediment because bulk oxygen production is concentrated in only a few cities, particularly Lagos, he said.
In remote locations, hospitals find it challenging to access supplies because of the expense and difficulty of shipping heavy oxygen cylinders across long distances and weak road networks.
Enabulele said that the situation is further compounded by poor maintenance, with up to 80 per cent of oxygen concentrators in the paediatric wards of some hospitals delivering sub-optimal oxygen concentrations due to equipment breakdown and the lack of on-site biomedical specialists.
Pneumonia is one of the top killers of children in Nigeria, he said, with roughly 13 percent of children treated for respiratory infections developing hypoxaemia. Africans& Diaspora –
He said that ensuring sufficient oxygen could cut down the fatalities in hospital from childhood pneumonia by between 35 percent and 50 percent.
The former WMA president also warned that pregnant women with issues such as postpartum haemorrhage and severe pre-eclampsia have much higher risks when oxygen supplies are insufficient, noting that timely oxygen therapy is still very much needed in emergency obstetric care.
Enabulele said the challenge was more one of distribution and infrastructure than production, noting that Nigeria generates over 250 tonnes of bulk oxygen everyday, but the frailties of delivery systems do not allow oxygen to reach patients, especially in underprivileged places.
He urged the federal and state governments to step up their political commitment to healthcare by increasing investment, backing oxygen plants and hospitals with solar power systems, promoting public-private partnerships to improve oxygen logistics and cylinder management, and beefing up the training of doctors and nurses in oxygen therapy.
Enabulele said the situation, if not addressed, would lead to increased maternal and infant mortality, faster migration of healthcare personnel and greater public distrust of government facilities.
He urged on Nigerians to ask for more accountability, more hospital infrastructure, uninterrupted power supply and reliable access to medical oxygen as a fundamental healthcare entitlement.
Enabulele’s comments were echoed by Dr. Olayemi Dawodu, the Chief Executive Officer of Cerba-Lancet Nigeria, who expressed alarm over needless infant fatalities. Africans and Diaspora
One in eight Nigerian children with pneumonia develops life-threatening hypoxaemia that increases the risk of mortality fivefold, said Dawodu, calling for urgent action to strengthen Nigeria’s oxygen delivery infrastructure.
The World Health Organisation thinks improved oxygen systems might save up to 122,000 paediatric pneumonia deaths globally each year, Dawodu said.
“Timely oxygen therapy significantly improves survival,” he said, adding that many of the global deaths occur in low- and middle- income countries such Nigeria, where persistent inadequacies in oxygen access continue to put vulnerable patients at risk.
Nigeria has made significant strides in improving access to oxygen in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, but many public and private hospitals still face inconsistent or inadequate supplies despite the advances, she added. Africans & Diasporas
She said that the country’s oxygen dilemma was no longer merely a production problem, but symptomatic of deeper vulnerabilities across the health system: in infrastructure, financing, distribution, biomedical engineering and workforce capacity.
She said one of the major challenges is unstable electricity, adding that oxygen plants, pressure swing adsorption plants, concentrators, ventilators and monitoring devices all depend on stable power to work well.
Power outages, reliance on diesel generators, higher fuel costs and equipment downtime continue to impair oxygen supplies, particularly at facilities serving vulnerable populations, she said.
While a lot of tertiary hospitals now have oxygen plants, many secondary hospitals still rely on oxygen cylinders, while many primary healthcare centres have neither oxygen concentrators nor piped oxygen, Dawodu said.
Poor logistics further complicate the problem, she said, with some hospitals having to carry cylinders considerable distances due to weak distribution systems, shortages of cylinders and delayed refilling services.
The Cerba-Lancet Nigeria CEO also blamed frequent failures of oxygen equipment on inadequate biomedical engineering assistance, poor preventative maintenance, lack of replacement parts and inadequate equipment calibration. Africans and the Diaspora
She said the restricted availability of pulse oximeters means doctors are unable to reliably identify patients that require oxygen therapy, while inadequate workforce training continues to impair oxygen prescription, equipment maintenance and infant care.
There is a need for a holistic assessment of the country’s structures, operations and the overall healthcare system to address the difficulties of medical oxygen supply in Nigeria, the former President of the Medical Women’s Association of Nigeria (MWAN), Dr. Omonwumi Bakare has said.
She blamed the chronic lack of oxygen on poor transport infrastructure, inconsistent electricity, inadequate equipment maintenance and shortages of biomedical engineers.
Bakare noted that delay in oxygen therapy leads to unnecessary deaths in children under five, new-borns and mothers with obstetric problems.
She urged governments to invest in solar-powered oxygen systems, build up distribution networks, increase access to pulse oximeters, include oxygen therapy in health insurance schemes and formalise biomedical training, stressing that oxygen is a life-saving medicine with no alternative.
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