Ninety-two oxygen concentrators made available to Varanasi through Tata Memorial Centre

Varanasi: Apart from providing treatment to cancer patients, the Tata Memorial Center (TMC) is also playing an important role in the fight against Corona across the country. Under this, medical equipment are being made available to various hospitals and state administrations across the country, on behalf of the hospital.

Keeping in view, the increasing number of COVID cases across the country and the challenge of limited resources for treatment, under the foresighted leadership of TMC Director, Dr. R.A. Badwe, Dr. CS Pramesh, Director, Tata Memorial Hospital and Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Hospital and officer-in-charge of TMC Varanasi, started working on a war footing to contribute to the national efforts in fighting the pandemic.

At the time of this national crisis, in addition to fight against Cancer in Varanasi, to provide strength to the fight against COVID, TMC Director R. A. Badwe has been instrumental in providing all help for COVID Care facility that has been started at Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and has seen to it that TMC also supports the initiatives being taken by the Varanasi District Administration to fight COVID.  Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital (HBCH) and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Centre(MPMMCC),  Varanasi are Units of TMC- an autonomous Grant-in-Aid Institution under the Department of Atomic Energy, a department directly under the Prime Minister Office. Both the Varanasi Units have been inaugurated by the Honourable Prime Minister on 19th February, 2019.

Speaking with regard to the COVID situation, Dr. R. A. Badwe who has special affinity and also a soft corner for Varanasi and the people of Varanasi, said, “Our whole focus in this pandemic is to help the people to continue breathing, following which TMC has sought help from the donors from outside the country. Fortunately, we have received an overwhelmingly good response from them. We and our team are constantly trying to help patients in other parts of the country including Varanasi in the current situation.” Given the problem of oxygen in the second wave of COVID, TMC is constantly contacting donors from other countries and the equipment that are received are being transported to different parts of the country, as per the need.

Under this arrangement, US-based NGO Community Partners International, Yusuf & Farida Hameed Foundation, Presbyterian Hospital in New York and other donors of Indian origin living in the US, as also “Navya”, an organization working with TMC to provide online cancer opinion, came forward to provide medical equipment to TMC. As a result, in a very short time, 3800+ oxygen concentrators, 3 lakh N-95 masks and other medical equipment reached Mumbai by a Fedex 777 special cargo aircraft. These medical equipment are being transported to state government administrations and various hospitals across the country through TMC’s units such as, BBCI Guwahati, HBCH Sangrur, HBCHRC Visakhapatnam, HBCH Varanasi, MPMMCC Varanasi, ACTREC Navi Mumbai and TMH Mumbai. Prof. Girish Chinnaswamy of Department of Paediatric Oncology, TMH is playing a crucial role in coordination of the pan-India distribution activity of these eauipment.

On Thursday, the 13th May, 20121, Dr Satyajit Pradhan, Director of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital & Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Center handed over 92 oxygen concentrators to Mr. Deepak Agrawal, IAS, Varanasi Divisional Commissioner, at his camp office. These have been sent by the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai to be used for the benefit of COVID patients of Varanasi and adjoining districts. Soon, 58 more oxygen concentrators would be handed over to Varanasi District Administration, thereby contributing a total of 150 such equipment for the benefit of the patients of Varanasi and adjoining districts.

 

On this occasion, Chief Administrative Officer of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Center, Madho Singh, Deputy Director of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital, Dr. B. K. Mishra and Assistant Medical Officer of Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya Cancer Center Dr. Aakash Anand and Public Relations Officer, Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya Cancer Centre, Mr. Akhilesh Pandey were present.

Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Mr. Deepak Agrawal, appreciated the contribution in terms of services and equipment being provide by TMC in this hour of national emergency and said, “This will help a lot in making available oxygen to the COVID patients of other districts adjoining Varanasi, in time. DRDO Covid Hospital, SSH and Trauma Centre, BHU, Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital and other government and private hospitals now have adequate treatment facilities for COVID in Varanasi. These oxygen concentrators will be used for timely delivery of oxygen to COVID patients at Community Health Centres in the districts of Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Ballia, Chandauli, etc. so that their condition can improve promptly,”

Varanasi, Divisional Commissioner Mr. Deepak Aggarwal, along with District Magistrate, Mr. Kaushal Raj Sharma, Municipal Commissioner Mr. Gaurang Rathi, CMO Office and others officers of the district administration have been actively involved in making available facilities for fighting COVID not only in Varanasi but also in adjoining areas.

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “In the second wave of Corona, we saw that  COVID patients needed medicines for better treatment, ICU beds and they are having problems due to lack of timely availability of oxygen. In such a situation, we decided that we should get help from Indian donors living abroad. In this work, Dr Naresh Ramarajan and Ms. Gitika Srivastava, the founders of Navya have played a key role in collecting medical equipment from donors in USA. These medical equipment are now being transported to every nook and corner of the country.”