Tata Memorial Centre strengthens response to second Covid-19 wave

A FedEx 777 cargo plane landed in Mumbai on Sunday with 81,000 kgs 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 lakh N95 masks.

An Air India passenger plane landed in Delhi with an additional 400 concentrators.

These are the third and fourth shipments that Tata Memorial Centre has brought in over the past two weeks.

The memorial, 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). “We have the singular focus of getting these units to the hospitals throughout India so that many can breathe well,” said Dr Rajendra Badwe, Director, TMC.

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.

Tata Memorial Centre is a tertiary cancer centre under the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. It sees up to 1 lakh new cancer cases each year. Two-thirds of its patients are treated at a highly subsidised rate or completely free of charge.

Consolidating efforts at TMC along with Dr Badwe are Dr CS 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 organizations 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 spite of a raging pandemic.

In addition, over 2,000 patients with cancer and Covid-19 have been treated for the virus in the various TMC centres.

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.

When asked about 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 have been helping in procuring large oxygenators. We have had an overwhelming response globally, with the 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.”