The journey of the oxygen concentrator that took too long.

Oxygen concentrators are important for giving patients oxygen in a place that doesn’t have wall oxygen, this is especially true for babies in the Chatinkha nursery- the closest thing to a NICU here at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. On a visit to Chatinkha, we were told one concentrator was not working. We rolled it through the maze of hallways, bumped it out to the car, and drove it to PAM- the adjoining office of engineers that fix the medical devices for the hospital and more accurately, the graveyard of broken medical devices on gurneys turned to dollies. With a lack of spare parts, donated already broken equipment, and a small staff for the number of devices, the engineers at PAM face an incredible challenge. There we were instructed to return in the afternoon.

Following instructions, that afternoon we tried to find one of the engineers. Though we were successful, the engineer informed us there were two major problems that would prevent him from being able to fix the concentrator. First, the power was out in the building (and given that it had been out for a year, it did not seem to be coming back on any time soon). Second, he could come to our office to fix it there where we had power, because it was already 3:30 in the afternoon and so it was too late to come that day. The next morning the engineer came to our office and fixed the oxygen concentrator.

There are many complicated issues in place here. There is the challenge of identifying broken equipment when there are so many patients per nurse and limited testing equipment. There is a personnel challenge of needing the man power to fix the number of devices that break and the resources to be able to do so. Finally, dusty conditions and old equipment contribute to devices failing sooner and more frequently. All that said, I have been impressed with the quality of care I have found here at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.