THE Continental Leadership Research Institute (CLRI) says the government should remove taxes on all commodities that are needed in the production oxygen to make the commodity more accessible to citizens in both public and private health facilities

Executive director Mundia Hakoola said CLRI had noted that there was a shortage of oxygen in many health facilities across the country.

Hakoola said the institute had taken time to study the situation around oxygen levels in health facilities around the country during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said there was need to ensure oxygen was available in health centres so as to save as many lives as possible.

Hakoola noted that health facilities or hospitals that had been built with the capacity to self-supply of oxygen such as UTH and Levy Hospitals were operating at 50 per cent capacity.

He said this affects the availability of oxygen in the two hospitals.

Hakoola said the government should build institutional capacity for the institutions to run at 100 per cent.

“More recently the government removed taxes on cooking oil and petroleum products. We recommend that the government should remove taxes on all commodities that are needed in the production of oxygen so as to make oxygen more accessible to citizens in both public and private health facilities,” he said. “Public hospitals and state institutions that have a capacity to produce oxygen should be adequately funded to ensure that there is efficiency in the distribution of oxygen in all health posts across the country.”

Hakoola said the institute was aware that stakeholders such as UNICEF and others had stepped in to improve the delivery of oxygen cylinders to various health centres.

He, however, said there still remains a grave shortage of gauges that need to be mounted on the cylinders to facilitate the delivery of oxygen to the patients.

Hakoola said there was an urgent need to have the gauges to increase oxygen in all health centres.

He said the fight against COVID-19 required consorted efforts from all stakeholders.

“And at a time like this, we need strong leadership at the centre of this pandemic ensure that less lives are lost. The institute calls on members of the public to follow the health guidelines to avoid spreading the disease unnecessary,” said Hakoola.