Do Oxygen Differently
Breathing Room: Issue #2
“As a hospital manager, I have many, many issues every day. Since HealthPort got here, oxygen is not one of them!”
– Dr Folasade Fadare, Harvey Road Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.
Thanks to increased investment in oxygen production during COVID, more oxygen is available than ever before in contexts where it previously was not. Today, as an oxygen community we face the next frontier - oxygen may now be available but that does not always mean that it is accessible to patients at the right time, in the right place, in the right way, especially in low-resourced settings.
Service-based oxygen models, such as that delivered by HealthPort, where expert oxygen providers manage everything from supply to maintenance, are showing that it is possible to close this gap between availability and access. We believe they are #DoingOxygenDifferently.
By providing oxygen, training staff, and monitoring and fixing equipment, Oxygen-as-a-Service providers are helping facilities stay focused on patient care – not equipment management. When delivered successfully, this service ensures that oxygen gets to patients on time, all of the time.
What’s exciting is how adaptable this model is. Across Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and India, our partners are tailoring O2aaS to fit their context - using different technologies, delivery systems, and pricing models. Whether it’s solar-powered hubs, swap-and-go maintenance, or bundled training and equipment packages, each approach roots itself in local needs, and is showing that reliable oxygen access can be both cost-effective and scalable.
Want to see what it looks like to #DoOxygenDifferently?
Watch our film that follows, and demonstrates the impact of three Oxygen-as-a-Service Models in Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania.
Does this resonate? Help us to showcase the incredible businesses who are doing oxygen differently by sending this video to someone directly, or sharing our LinkedIn post.
How we’re Doing Oxygen Differently
Advocating for ‘The Missing Middle’ at the World Health Assembly 2025
During the Medical Oxygen CoP Roundtable hosted by GO2AL and Access to Medicine Foundation at the World Health Assembly last month, we were glad to see growing recognition of the challenge that we believe is central to unlocking sustainable oxygen access: the ‘missing middle’ of private healthcare businesses in the oxygen space.
Since much needed COVID19 investments in oxygen production have filled the most immediate and pressing gaps in oxygen provision, we have come to understand new critical challenges in oxygen provision through our work with Oxygen-as-a-Service providers.
At a WHO virtual workshop series for developing national medical oxygen scale-up plans, Oxygen CoLab’s Jason Houdek spoke to national oxygen leaders across the world about fragmented oxygen procurement systems, and the lack of clear roles in the funding of sustainable oxygen systems.
In other words, the bottleneck has shifted: from making oxygen to delivering it–reliably and effectively–to patients.
Industrial gas producers can make oxygen efficiently, but their businesses often aren’t built around delivering it effectively to the health sector. Public-sector health facilities can struggle to run PSA plants on their own when they lack operational and maintenance capacity–so these plants are often underutilised or become ‘orphaned assets’.
What’s missing is a dedicated layer of health-focused private sector actors - the “missing middle” who can support a move from fragmented delivery systems to functional, sustainable oxygen markets that reliably serve patients.
We’re grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important conversation and to see momentum building around a shared understanding of what’s needed next.
Stay tuned for more thoughts on what we are doing to support the “missing middle”.
P.S.
As we work to close the gap that the ‘Missing Middle’ presents in oxygen access, we’re seeking a health economist to help us shape cost models that support service-based oxygen solutions in Kenya. This role is critical in helping counties move beyond fragmented oxygen delivery systems to a more sustainable, functional approach that relies on the private sector to effectively deliver and maintain oxygen services at the point of care.
If you have experience in health-systems research, financial modelling, and demand-side assessments, or know someone who fits the bill, we’d love to hear from you.
Deadline: 16th June 2025
See you in a few months,
Miranda