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Mumbai (Maharashtra) : A FedEx 777 cargo plane landed in Mumbai on May 9, 2021, morning, with 81,000 kg of medical equipment for Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and its associated hospitals for distribution across India. The chartered flight carried in 3,400 portable oxygen concentrators along with 3,00,000 N95 masks. A few hours later, an Air India passenger plane landed in Delhi with an additional 400 concentrators. These are the third and fourth shipments that Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) has brought in over the past two weeks.
TMC, besides providing life-saving services, is also sourcing and allocating medical equipment to over 200 hospitals across India that are part of the National Cancer Grid (NCG). Dr. Rajendra Badwe, Director of TMC, says, “We have the singular focus of getting these units to the hospitals throughout India so that many can breathe well.
This expedient and organised response to the pandemic is fitting with TMC’s role as an 80-year-old institution focused on delivering quality care to all, including the most vulnerable and underserved in the country. TMC is a tertiary cancer center under the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. It sees up to 100,000 new cancer cases each year. Two thirds of its patients are treated at a highly subsidised rate or completely free of charge, according to a PIB release.
Consolidating efforts at TMC along with Dr Badwe are Dr C S Pramesh, Director of Tata Memorial Hospital, and Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, the Deputy Director of Epidemiology. Dr. Pramesh, also the Coordinator of the National Cancer Grid, says, “We are collecting requests for equipment and consumables from hospitals across the NCG, and mapping the current incidence of Covid-19 infections to determine where the greatest needs are and prioritising government and charitable organisations to finalise the allocation [of oxygen concentrators.”
Throughout the pandemic, TMC has been responsible for protecting cancer patients who are far more susceptible to an adverse event from Covid-19 than others. Adding to the risks that Covid-19 presents, the risk of untreated cancer looms large as it can be more fatal than the virus. All seven TMC centres across India—Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Sangrur, Varanasi, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam, and Muzaffarpur—have continued cancer care throughout the pandemic. Together, they have managed to treat over 80,000 patients with cancer. In addition, over 2,000 patients with cancer and COVID-19 have been treated for COVID at various TMC centres.
Since the first wave of the pandemic, TMC has been a leader in India’s Covid-19 response. In June 2020, TMC partnered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra government and helped set up an ad-hoc 518 bed and 10 ICU bed Covid-19 facility at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai. As soon as the second wave hit, TMC’s team of experts drew on this experience to identify lightweight, portable, high-flow oxygen concentrators that would have the maximum impact in saving lives, especially in hospitals that don’t have oxygen pipelines.
Dr. Chaturvedi, who was looking after the NSCI centre, explains that the second wave of the pandemic seems to be related to a new variant that is affecting the lungs of young people, leading to a sharp rise in death among that population. One of the important factors leading to mortality is the lack of ICU beds, lifesaving drugs, and oxygen.
When asked how TMC has been able to respond so effectively to the recent shortage in oxygen supply, Dr. Badwe states, “ Besides local industry stepping up production of medical grade oxygen, philanthropists like Tata Trusts and other NGO’s in India helping procure large oxygenators, we have had an overwhelming response globally, with Indian diaspora and medical community joining hands to support, Air India, our national carrier, has been superlative in their services and has been instrumental in the speedy delivery of the consignment without any added cost of transit ”
Dr Badwe concludes, “ We are facing difficult times, but with our preparedness and global support we should be able to overcome it. Hopefully with access to vaccination across the globe we should be able to offer protection to the entire humanity against the deadly virus.”