Oxygen as a Utility
In the current market, unique challenges exist, which must be addressed. Some of the main challenges identified and listed previously include the following :
- delayed payments
- insufficient training
- supply chain inefficiencies
- lack of ownership
Date 11 October 2008, 11:29:07
Source Own work
Author Sambussy
It is clear from the recent news of the massive shortage of oxygen across India that otherwise successful efforts to improve health will be hampered unless the oxygen issue is addressed. This is a very dormant issue that was always prevailing in the background and people working in the medical sector always had an understanding of the issue. But never it has been addressed in a realistic manner as it should have been.
While efforts are underway to address the situation by purchasing oxygen concentrators, developing and amending policies, and establishing new social
enterprises, these programs all work on the margins of the issue without confronting the core challenge of generating long-term incentives for firms to produce increasingly reliable and less expensive service delivery.
Addressing the growing need for oxygen requires a solution that fundamentally changes how oxygen is generated, distributed, and paid for.
The oxygen as a mobility approach brings the essential players — health systems, oxygen suppliers, manufacturers and/or distributors, and financial partners — into a unified system to ensure reliable service provision that is driven by increased public-private investment
Considering oxygen as a utility is a novel, innovative approach that relies on a bank guarantee (a practice common among large infrastructure investments such as clean water and electricity) to unlock private investment to increase access to oxygen. A guarantee, combined with other essential components.
The concept provides incentives for suppliers to provide oxygen services by de-risking investment through financial guarantees and ensuring an agreed-upon rate to be paid for these services over multiple years. Existing interventions have not adequately addressed the challenges of providing equitable oxygen access, whether it be policy, training, infrastructure, credit constraints, or combinations thereof. The Oxygen as a utility approach addresses those factors through an operating model that is designed to be adapted to the unique policy and market conditions present in a given setting.
Finally, the key criteria in the selection tool include the burden of acute respiratory infections, population size, and the country’s expenditure on health.
