Planes carrying O2 concentrators and med aid for Tata Memorial Centre land

    Mumbai, May 9 (PTI) A cargo plane carrying 81,000 kgs
of medical equipment, including portable oxygen concentrators,
which will be distributed forTata Memorial Centre(TMC) and
its associated hospitals in India, landed in Mumbai on Sunday.
    The chartered flight, which landed in the morning
hours, carried in 3,400 portable oxygen concentrators along
with 300,000 N 95 masks, an official release said.
    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 the TMC
has brought in over the past two weeks, as per the release.
    The 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), the release said.
    "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 the 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," the release quoted
TMC director Rajendra Badwe as saying.
    The TMC is a tertiary cancer center under the
Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.
    "All seven TMC centres across India located at 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 spite of a raging pandemic," the
release said.
    In addition, over 2,000 patients with cancer and
COVID-19 have been treated for COVID-19 in various TMC
centres, it said.
    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 capacity
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," the release added.
    On the TMC's effective response to the recent shortage
in oxygen supply, Badwe said, "Besides local industry stepping
up production of medical grade oxygen, philanthropists like
Tata Trusts and other NGOs in Indiaare helpingprocure large
oxygenators. We have had an overwhelming response globally,
with the Indian diaspora and medical community joining hands
to support". PTI MR
NSK NSK

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)