AirSep Corporation, part of CAIRE Inc., supplied pressure-swing adsorption medical oxygen plants for Ethiopia’s new Amhara Region Oxygen Centre. The plants sit at Felege Hiwot Hospital in Bahir Dar and Dessie Referral Hospital. gasworld reported the Buffalo, New York, firm’s role in June 2019 as the centres began serving hospitals across Amhara.
CAIRE said the public-private project took more than three years. Partners included Assist International, the Federal Ministry of Health, the Amhara Regional Health Bureau, the GE Foundation’s Safe Surgery 2020 work, and Grand Challenges Canada. Assist International’s AI Medical Oxygen Production PLC was to run a local production and distribution model so revenue could return to regional health services.
Officials presented the centre as a model for wider oxygen scale-up under Ethiopia’s Medical Oxygen and Pulse Oximetry Road Map. Guests at related ceremonies included President Sahle-Work Zewde and then health minister Dr Amir Aman. The plants were meant to give surgeons and wards a steadier oxygen supply for millions of patients in Amhara.
Sources: gasworld, CAIRE Inc.