The second wave of COVID-19 had a deep impact on the resource-poor communities in India. As people struggled to find beds and oxygen in metropolitan cities, rural populace in far flung villages also faced accessibility issues, which were further deepened due to mobility, awareness and economic conditions.
Also read: INDIAdonates: 1 Mission , 13 States – Reaching the Unreached
To bridge the gap of accessibility, INDIAdonates, an NGO, began its COVID-19 Response intervention with 26 rural hospitals in the third week of April 2021. The idea behind the campaign of Upgrading Rural Medical Infrastructure was to strengthen the rural hospitals with basic medical facilities to fight COVID effectively and serve the most marginalized communities.
To that end, INDIAdonates provided support of more than Rupees 1 crore for medical consignment including ventilators, concentrators, pulse oximeters, patient stretcher, ABG machine, oxygen plant and helped 7 hospitals, in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh . All the equipment was much needed to fight the battle against COVID.
While the COVID cases started receding in mid of May across the country, Assam was emerging as a hotspot. One of our target hospitals in Cachar, Assam were struggling to support the resource-poor communities, as the positivity rate rose. Our partner hospital was ill-equipped to deal with severe COVID cases and was instructed to treat mild and moderately ill patients.
The hospital quickly responded by expanding their COVID facility to 10 beds, however they needed other necessary equipment which included Oxygen Concentrators, Patient Stretcher, ABG machine. After vigorous campaigning for the hospital INDIAdonates was able to procure all the said equipment in record time.
“INDIAdonates is conscientious of the needs of underserved communities and through our work we focus on reaching individuals and institutions who are most deserving,” says INDIAdonates Founders Dr Sanjay Patra and Mr Sandeep Sharma.
The equipment not only helped the hospital to fight the ongoing COVID cases, but also prepared them better in case of a surge.
