National Task Force for Transparent Oxygen Allocation

Synopsis

The supreme court has constituted a National Task Force for transparent oxygen allocation. It is a 12 member body constituted to guide the central government allocation of medical oxygen to the states. Further, it will also recommend a framework for broader pandemic preparedness and response.

Background

• The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has crippled the healthcare system in India.
• The situation is worse in the domain of oxygen supply. Due to acute shortages, the toll of preventable deaths has increased.
• In this scenario, the supreme court has set up a National Task Force for transparent oxygen allocation.

About the National Task Force for transparent oxygen allocation:

• It is a 12 member body constituted to guide the central government’s allocation of medical oxygen to the states.
• It has 10 members who are leading clinicians, critical care specialists, and virologists. Along with this, there are 2 government officials – Secretary, Ministry of Health, and Cabinet Secretary.
• It is established for a period of six months.

Working and Mandate of Task Force:

• It will work as per its 12 point terms of reference.
• The first five points focus on oxygen supply. This includes: 
  • Deciding on a methodology for the scientific allocation of oxygen to states
  • Facilitating audits (of oxygen supply, distribution, and utilization) by sub-groups within each state and UTs.
• The 6th point allows it to review and suggest measures necessary for ensuring the availability of essential drugs and medicines.
• The remaining 6 points are aimed at the broader pandemic preparedness and response. This includes planning and adopting remedial measures:
  • To ensure preparedness for present and future emergencies; 
  • To facilitate the use of technology; 
  • Furthermore, to suggest augmenting the availability of trained doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff; 
  • Also, to promote evidence-based research and enhance effective response to the pandemic; 
  • To facilitate sharing of best practices across the nation to promote knowledge about management of the pandemic
  • Lastly, to make recommendations in regard to other issues of pressing national concerns. 
• It can constitute more sub-groups in specialized areas or regions to assist in its work.
• It can seek assistance from experts both within and outside government in areas such as clinical virology and immunology, epidemiology/ public health, etc.

Benefits of Creating such a task force:

• Firstly, it will facilitate a public health response to the pandemic based upon scientific and specialized domain knowledge.
• Secondly, it will give inputs to decision-makers. These inputs will enable them to go beyond ad hoc solutions to unprecedented challenges.
• Thirdly, it will alter the techno-bureaucratic nature of policy decisions by ensuring the participation of independent subject experts.
• Fourthly, it will give suggestions to improve state-level public healthcare systems. As it looks at the shortage of medical oxygen through a broader lens of pandemic preparedness and response. 
  • The state-level health care system currently has:
    • Insufficient planning, delayed procurement, and weakness of supply chain management.
    • Insufficient government funding
    • absence of sufficient and trained human resources
    • high out-of-pocket expenditure (around 30-40%)

Way Forward:

• The members of NTF have the needed qualification and expertise to advise on clinical matters and oxygen supply. However, they may need to proactively co-opt experts from other fields for giving suggestions on broad issues in a short time. This involves experts from medical procurement and supply; pharmacology, free medicines, and diagnostics, etc. 
• Further, the task force should refrain from giving a mere medicalized response to a public health challenge. The focus should be on creating a healthcare system that can keep people healthy and respond to future epidemics and pandemics.

Source: Indian Express

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