The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in alliance with the NGO Socios En Salud (SES), donated a new medicinal oxygen generating plant which will be installed at the Belén Hospital in Trujillo. The new plant will benefit more than 36,000 COVID-19 patients throughout the region.
This investment of approximately US$ 100,000.00 hasthe capacity to produce 20 cubic meters of oxygen per hour, strengthening care and access to oxygen therapy. The donation will improve the hospital’s ability to respond to diagnosed cases of COVID -19, hypoxemia, respiratory failure, pneumonia, among others.
“The United States is a partner of Peru in the fight to stop the impact and mitigate the effects of COVID-19. On this occasion, through USAID and the NGO Socios en Salud, we donate this medicinal oxygen plant with the objective of improving the hospital’s response capacity to care for patients affected by the pandemic, at an opportune moment such as the current one when the country is facing the third wave”, said Mike Junge, Director of the Regional Office of Contracts and Agreements of USAID in Peru.
In order to ensure the production, distribution and maintenance of this oxygen plant, training will be included for the maintenance personnel of the Belén Hospital to maintain the equipment.
Dr. Leonid Lecca, general director of Socios En Salud, stated that the fight against COVID-19 does not stop. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have fought to help close the oxygen gap and today with this new oxygen plant that we deliver to Hospital Belén, we ensure that more patients have access to timely and quality care. Today, this oxygen plant will help patients with COVID-19, but later it will be part of the hospital’s installed capacity for the management of other respiratory diseases, “he added.
This new oxygen plant installed in the Hospital Belén de Trujillo is in addition to a oxygen generating plant implemented by USAID and Socios En Salud in November 2021 at the San Martín Health Center, located in the district of Iberia, province of Tahuamanu in Madre de Dios, located 3 hours from the city and near the border of Brazil and Bolivia.
The activity was held in the main auditorium of Hospital Belén de Trujillo and was attended by the Regional Governor of La Libertad, Manuel Lempén; the director of the Regional Office for Contracts and Agreements of USAID in Peru, Mike Junge; Cecilia Yañez, specialist from the Regional Office for Contracts and Agreements of USAID in Peru; the general director of Socios En Salud, Dr. Leonid Lecca, the medical director of Socios En Salud, Dr. Marco Tovar; the general director of the Hospital Belén de Trujillo, Dr. Rosa Karina Hernández; among other local authorities.