Saving lives by closing oxygen access gap in India

Dear Supporter,

Let me start with wishing you a very happy and healthy new year 2022! Hopefully we all will effectively deal with the new variant of Cornoa virus- OMICRON. In the last quarter gone by, we were able to complete the thought process about selection of technology and products for its effective use in remote areas of Maharashtra where the technical capacity of the available manpower and quality of existing health infrastructure can not be taken for granted. In addition, we told ourselves that we too are learning quite a few new things in use of medical oxygen and that we should use this opportunity to generate awareness about various critical health conditions besides COVID for using the medical oxygen concentrator. We thought it would help the health workers in rural areas importance of this machine and that will result in maximum use of the machine. 

Our initial interactions during the distribution of oxygen concentrators helped us gain insights into the level of awareness and availability of oxygen concentrators in rural parts of Pune district, Maharashtra. It appeared that for about 60 rural villages with an average population of 300, there were 7 Primary Health Clinics and none of these PHCs had access to reliable source of medical oxygen. All critical patients needing medical oxygen needed to travel minimum 30 Kms and max 50 Kms to reach the rural hospital. We are talking about place called Velhe block which is hardly 80 Kms from Pune city in Maharashtra. Pune recently aquired the status of Metro City. In other words, it was quite surprising that after the second wave in India where almost every Indian was thinking about the eventual need of medical oxygen, this region was ignored and none of big organizations working in the field of health approached these communities to understand their need. 

In any case, we had decided to distribute simple automatic 10 LPM light weight compact (mobile) oxygen concentrator units to the primary health care centers as these are the places rural people first approach for any help/ support during critical times.

It must be mentioned that through my organization -Applied Environmental Research Foundation(AERF)- we have been trying to address issues related to environment and sustainable livelihoods in this block for last 10 years and thus have very good rapport with local community. We were fortunate to get a support from GlobalGiving for procurement of Oxygen concentrators so that these are made available for use for the remotely placed communities. 

We distributed 2 oxygen concentrators in Velhe block during the last quarter. One at the primary health care center in village Karanjawane and another at the rural hospital in Velhe. 

We intend to conduction outreach sessions in the next quarter with these communities so that this machine is properly used in critical care and we are able to save lives of the most underprevilaged.

Thanks for your continued interest and support to this cause.

Jayant