More than five billion people around the world do not have access to medical oxygen in an emergency.
A new Lancet Global Health Commission report found almost 400 million people required medical oxygen every year, but 60 percent of the world’s population didn’t have access to a safe and affordable supply.
Commission member Hamish Graham, from Melbourne’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said targets for universal access, national roadmaps and more affordable and accessible care were vital to help fill the medical oxygen gap.
Dr Graham said investment was needed to strengthening medical oxygen systems which would have a huge impact by saving millions of lives and improving pandemic preparedness.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic had put a spotlight on the longstanding global inequities in accessing medical oxygen.
“Oxygen is required at every level of the healthcare system for children and adults with a wide range of acute and chronic conditions.
“Previous efforts, including the major investments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, largely focused on the delivery of equipment to produce more oxygen, neglecting the supporting systems and people required to ensure it was distributed, maintained, and used safely and effectively.”
Dr Graham said channelling investments into national oxygen plans and bolstering health systems, including wider use of pulse oximeters that measured how much oxygen was in the blood, would help solve the medical oxygen crisis.
He said the importance of medical oxygen must also be recognised and integrated into broader national strategies and pandemic preparedness and response planning.
“Governments should bring together public and private sector partners with a stake in medical oxygen delivery, including health, education, industry, energy and transport to design a system and set up a governance structure that supports the new Global Oxygen Alliance (GO₂AL) and replenishing The Global Fund with a strong oxygen access mandate,” he said.
Read the full Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security report.
