A long with the heartbreaking news about massive black-marketeering of medicines and equipment in the pandemic comes the soul-elevating one about how different companies, including small start-ups, are pitching in to provide these very things to patients.
Health-tech startup Meddo has launched free COVID-19 care centres in Gurugram to help patients with mild to moderate symptoms. These centres offer free beds to non-critical COVID-19 patients, only overheads like medical consumables and diagnostics are charged.
In total, Meddo will be setting up 150 beds. Currently, 25 rooms with a capacity for 50 patients are operational at the Treebo hotel in Gurugram. Rooms are equipped with doctors, nurses, and oxygen concentrators.
"We want to ensure early stage assistance and limit the need for hospital admission and ICU beds. Our existing partner doctors are visiting the facilities and taking care of the patients while the trained nursing staff is available 24 x 7. Meddo Foundation is bearing the entire cost," says Saurabh Kochhar, Founder & CEO, Meddo, adding that it is also taking care of the food and accommodation requirements of the medical staff at these facilities and has extended medical insurance cover as well for them.
Another health-tech venture, HealthCube, is enabling the distribution of medical oxygen cylinders and concentrators under its OxygenForIndia initiative, under which help desks have been set up in hospitals to distribute oxygen to patients in need.
A beneficiary just has to connect with the OxygenForIndia team over call or email, undergo a needs’ assessment, and upon approval can pick up an oxygen cylinder or concentrator for home use from the OxygenForIndia desk.
Currently operating in Delhi, it will be expanded across Kolkata, Ranchi, Guwahati, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru in the days to come. The campaign has been supported by many people, corporates and groups like Verizon Media, UiPath, Christensen Advisory, SeattleForIndia, United Airlines, Tagros Chemicals India, Tech Mahindra, Mudita Cargo etc.
"I was jolted after one of my colleagues nearly died due to lack of oxygen. Though the lack of oxygen affects every one of us, there is no organized arrangement to supply oxygen concentrators and cylinders. That is why OxygenForIndia was founded," says Dr Ramanan Laxminarayan, Founder, HealthCube and OxygenForIndia.
Meanwhile, Uttam Group of Companies is handling, installing and maintaining oxygen plants that were sent to India from France to help ease the oxygen shortage in Delhi. It has set up seven oxygen generation plants across Delhi - Dharamshila Naraina Cancer Hospital, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, BL Kapoor Memorial Hospital, Air Force Station, Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital, Satyavadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital and Ambedkar Nagar Hospital.
One oxygen plant has also been set up at TIMS in Hyderabad. These have the capacity to add 400 cylinders daily to the system. "The hospital infrastructure in India is majorly dependent on external sources for oxygen supply. Large hospital setups are running on liquid oxygen tanks installed in their premises, but small hospitals are managing with their cylinder banks depending on gas suppliers. These plants will make the hospitals self-reliant for their oxygen requirement," says Uttam Group CEO Karan Bhatia.
Portea Medical has partnered with Hindustan Unilever and KVN Foundation to drive 'Mission HO2PE' under which it is providing 4,000 free oxygen concentrators to patients in need. "The second wave is unprecedented and has shown that there is an urgent need to treat patients with oxygen therapy and keep them out of the overflowing hospitals. We are ensuring access to medical oxygen for patients in their homes," says Portea Medical co-founder and CEO Meena Ganesh.
The Heart Care Foundation of India is also providing free oxygen concentrators to critical patients in Delhi/NCR on a returnable basis. "Ours is a voluntary social initiative to help patients. Patients or their caregivers can contact HCFI on Whatsapp for assistance. The oxygen concentrators are made available on a returnable basis for a maximum of seven days upon completion of verification and formalities," says Naina Aggarwal Ahuja, Trustee, Heart Care Foundation of India.
She added that a free COVID OPD service on Zoom (84290921517) is also available daily from 10 AM to 10 PM. Among others contributing to the cause is celebrity engagement platform Tring which has teamed up with Hemkunt Foundation to provide Oxygen Cylinders.
"Each contribution counts. We all must play our part to alleviate this crisis. We are using our platform’s strengths to help rally the support of concerned citizens to contribute to the Covid Relief initiative, which will go to the Hemkunt Foundation," says Akshay Saini, CEO & Co - Founder, Tring.