This correspondence examines medical oxygen access in Somalia's health system, arguing for oxygen to be reframed as essential public infrastructure — not a commodity — amid fragile health-system conditions including conflict, damaged infrastructure, and workforce shortages.
A nationwide assessment of 131 Somali hospitals found a median emergency and critical care readiness score of 0.31, with more than 80% of hospitals not ready to provide emergency and critical care; separately, solar-powered oxygen concentrators in 6 rural conflict-affected hospitals were associated with reliable oxygen delivery and improved outcomes in hypoxemic patients.
This is an opinion/correspondence piece with no primary data collection; recommendations rely on cited secondary sources, which may not fully capture Somalia's current heterogeneous health-system capacity.
Clinicians and policymakers in fragile settings should advocate for integrating oxygen systems into national health plans — linking production, electricity, maintenance, workforce training, and pulse oximetry — rather than relying on one-time equipment donations. Solar-powered oxygen concentrators represent a practical option where grid electricity is unreliable.
Explore related topics
