New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday directed officials to ensure adequate staff in hospitals across the country as he chaired a meeting to review the progress of oxygen augmentation and availability across the country, his office said in a statement. The statement added Modi asked officials to ensure adequate training of hospital staff on operation and maintenance of oxygen plants and that each district has trained personnel available. The meeting was held amid fears of a possible third Covid-19 wave. The country faced a severe second wave of the pandemic from February that overwhelmed India’s medical infrastructure by triggering a shortage of oxygen, medicines, and hospital beds.

The statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the officials informed Modi that around 8,000 personnel were expected to be trained across the country. Modi was briefed about the utilisation of money sanctioned under the PM Cares Fund for oxygen plants. He was told that 1,500 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants would be installed across India to support over 400,000 oxygenated beds.

Officials briefed PM about the progress on the installation of PSA Oxygen plants across the country. More than 1500 PSA Oxygen plants are coming up across the nation which includes the contribution from PM CARES as well as various ministries & PSUs,” the statement said. It quoted Modi saying these plants should be made “functional at the earliest”. Modi asked officials to work closely with the state governments to ensure that. He called for using the advanced technology Internet of Things (IoT) “to track performance and functioning of these oxygen plants at a local and national level.”IoT is a system of internet-connected devices embedded with sensors that can collect and transfer data over a wireless network for computation and research purposes. “A pilot (is) being done using IoT for monitoring the performance of the oxygen plants,” the statement quoted officials as telling Modi.In April, money was sanctioned for the installation of 551 PSA plants under the PM CARES Fund. Earlier, ₹201.58 crores was allocated for the installation of 162 such plants.