Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai gets 3,900 oxygen concentrators from donors

The supplies landed in the city in a chartered plane on Sunday morning. Representation pic

AMID the soaring need for oxygen therapy for Covid-19 treatment, the Tata Memorial Hospital, through its network of Indian American donors, collected 3,900 oxygen concentrators to be distributed to hospitals across the country. The concentrators were collected in 10 days.

Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), ACTREC, KEM Hospital, BARC Hospital, Sion Hospital, Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals, CIDCO Covid-19 facility, Sub District Hospital Panvel, Panvel, Covid-19 Hospital, Kalamboli, Pramod Mahajan Covid-19 hospital, Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation, INHS Asvini, Kailash Kher Foundation, Giving Back, will be few of the beneficiaries from Mumbai and Navi Mumbai.

The oxygen concentrators landed in Mumbai on Sunday morning in a FedEx 777 cargo plane along with 81,000 kg of medical equipment for Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and its associated hospitals for distribution across India. The chartered flight also carried in 3,00,000 N95 masks. A few hours later, an Air India passenger plane landed in Delhi with an additional 400 concentrators.

TMC, besides providing life-saving services, is also sourcing and allocating medical equipment for over 200 hospitals across India that are part of the National Cancer Grid (NCG). Dr Rajendra Badwe, director, TMC, said, "We have the singular focus of getting these units to the hospitals throughout India so that many can breathe well."

These are the third and fourth shipments that Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) has brought in over the past two weeks.

Dr CS Pramesh, director, TMH, said, "We are collecting requests for equipment and consumables from hospitals across the NCG, and mapping the incidence of Covid-19 infections to determine where the greatest needs are and prioritising government and charitable organisations to finalise allocation [of oxygen concentrators]."

Dr. Badwe added, "Besides local industry, stepping up production of medical grade oxygen, philanthropists like Tata Trusts and other NGOs in India are helping procure large oxygenators. We have had overwhelming response globally, with the Indian diaspora and medical community joining to support."