# Hub-and-spoke oxygen supply

A Global Fund briefing note of 23 August 2023 defines hub-and-spoke oxygen supply as the centralised approach in which one large plant produces and stores all of the oxygen in high-pressure cylinders for distribution, as opposed to many small PSA plants at the individual points of use.

The note adds that a secondary system often distributes the oxygen to specific locations where hospitals pick it up, that one model does not have to be chosen for an entire country, and that there could be many centralised plants, each serving its own cluster of hospitals. It lists as advantages less power overall, more efficient running because a cylinder filling plant can store its maximum output, and significantly less maintenance with few machines. As disadvantages it lists cylinder distribution that geography and weather can make difficult or impossible, a substantial initial investment in trucks, garages, cylinders and storage areas, a detailed inventory system to track cylinders, and a less resilient system, with potential for a single point of failure, in which power reliability and maintenance are much more critical.

The Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security (February 2025) describes oxygen from pressure or vacuum swing adsorption plants that could be produced centrally, stored in cylinders and distributed to peripheral facilities via a hub-and-spoke model. UNICEF describes a public-private partnership in which each plant works as a central hub that fills and delivers cylinders to smaller nearby facilities. For the cylinders, see the filling rack.

## Sources

- [Global Fund / Build Health International, Briefing Note: Centralized vs Decentralized Approach to Oxygen Access (23 August 2023)](https://resources.theglobalfund.org/media/t45htnle/cr_c19rm-centralized-decentralized-oxygen-access_technical-briefing-note_en.pdf)
- [Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security (Lancet Glob Health 2025; 13(3): e528, 17 February 2025), full text on PubMed Central](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11865010/)
- [UNICEF, Public-Private Partnerships for reliable oxygen supply (web page)](https://www.unicef.org/innovation/public-private-partnerships-reliable-oxygen-supply)

Reviewed: 2026-10-22. Ultra Controlo engineering. https://library.ultracontrolo.com/glossary/hub-and-spoke-oxygen-supply/