OxyCare Uganda
Expanding Access to Medical Oxygen Through Solar-Powered Oxygen Plants (ACCESS O2)
Prize Amount
$165,000 USD
Location
Northern and Central Uganda
Problem
Access to safe and reliable medical oxygen remains limited worldwide, especially in low and middle-income countries. According to the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, over 60% of the world’s population lacks access to safe and reliable medical oxygen services. Children under five are significantly affected, with an estimated 800,000 children’s deaths before COVID-19 due to oxygen shortages. In Uganda, approximately 13% of children admitted with severe pneumonia have hypoxemia, many of which could be treated with oxygen therapy and prevented. However, access to readily available medical oxygen therapy remains a challenge, especially in remote areas. Based on OxyCare Uganda’s recent survey in 20 remote hospitals, they found that about 50% of oxygen contractors are non-functional due to poor routine maintenance and unreliable electricity. Health facility staff often travel over 300 km from the West Nile region to Kampala to refill oxygen cylinders at the Joint Medical Store, where oxygen plants are located. Yet, a person who needs oxygen can only breathe unaided for about 5 minutes before they cannot survive without immediate oxygen supplementation. Moreover, the WHO reports about 52 deaths per 1,000 live births, most of which could be prevented with reliable and safe access to medical oxygen.
Project Description
OxyCare Uganda will build and install five solar-powered Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants in five high-volume neonatal intensive care units at remote hospitals in the West Nile region of Uganda. Unlike traditional PSAs, the solar-powered plant (O2 Cube) uses renewable solar energy technology to produce over 90% oxygen concentration on-site. These plants will serve as support and refilling sites for nearby hospitals oxygen cylinders, increasing access to medical oxygen in twenty hospitals. The O2 Cubes will be built, operated, and regularly maintained by OxyCare Uganda’s technical staff to ensure sustained and efficient operation.
Project Novelty
The ACCESS O2 project is a new system for reliably delivering oxygen by combining solar-powered medical oxygen plants, onsite oxygen production and distribution, and trained local clinical and biomedical staff to support operations, routine maintenance, and repair.
The solar-powered Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen generation plant (O2 Cube) is the first of its kind in the West Nile region, where most hospitals rely on grid electricity and experience load-shedding blackouts weekly. O2 Cube eliminates this barrier with renewable, off-grid oxygen production.
Project Lead
The project is led by Mr. Solomon Piwun, the Executive Director of OxyCare Uganda. Solomon is a biomedical engineer with over 10 years of experience dedicated to improving healthcare access in low-resource settings. As the Founder and Executive Director of OxyCare Uganda, they lead initiatives to expand medical oxygen access through device innovation, health systems strengthening, and technical training. With a global technical background spanning South Korea, Austria, and India, Solomon specializes in sustainable, community-centered solutions for medical equipment maintenance and diagnostics.
Organization
OxyCare Uganda is a registered non-governmental organization in Uganda. OxyCare Uganda is dedicated to ensuring reliable medical oxygen access for underserved communities in Uganda. The organization specializes in sustainably enhancing biomedical human resources for health by recruiting, training, and deploying biomedical technicians at local and hard-to-reach hospitals.
