"In Italy we have about 3 million oxygen cylinders that we can count on, but in reality one million have been distributed in the past and are missing, because the gaps have not been reported. And this is accompanied by a phenomenon of The risk is that of having to face a shortage of these containers in the coming weeks, as it was, in the first wave of the pandemic, with the shortage of masks ".
So to ANSA Antonio Magi, president of the Order of Doctors of Rome, lacking is not oxygen, which is produced in sufficient quantity, but the container in which to put it in order to be able to administer it to Covid patients with respiratory failure.
"Many relatives of deceased patients, for example, throw away the cylinders after using them, also because there is no information about it. In many cases, however, the empty containers lie in the warehouses of pharmacies or health facilities. To this is added the phenomenon. hoarding: we are having it for cylinders, as we have seen it for some drugs ".
Of cylinders for the administration of oxygen, Magi specifies, "they are being produced, but it takes a long time to manufacture and distribute them, also because they are not like a mask. So to make up for the lack we are trying to recover and return what they are. around and don't use ".
a similar problem had occurred in some provinces of northern Italy as early as March and April and the Nas had given their contribution to go to recover and verify the state of those unused.
In this regard, he concludes, to manage this now so precious asset "we believe that centralized management is needed, with a national register to understand who has them, why and if they still use them".