The first consignment of medical aid in India arrived on April 25. Since then, medical oxygen and life-saving drugs have been steadily reaching India.
Help is coming from around the world in the wake of the second wave of Corona in India. According to many media reports, including NDTV and The Hindu, more than 25 flights have now arrived at the Delhi airport with help from abroad. India has received injections of 5500 oxygen constructors, 3200 oxygen cylinders and one lakh 36 thousand remedicators.
However, the question is where and when this aid coming from abroad as a medical emergency was delivered to the states.
The
first consignment of medical aid in India arrived on April 25, taking only seven days to prepare the SOP . Since then medical oxygen and life saving drugs have been steadily reaching India. Given the current situation, the goods should have been distributed to the needy states from day one. However, the central government took seven days to prepare the SOP on which states and hospitals to distribute it.
How the government works in this case can be understood in this way ... The nodal ministry for receiving medical help from abroad is the Ministry of External Affairs. While the standard operating procedure, i.e. SOP, was to be formulated by the Ministry of Health to distribute this help among the states and hospitals.
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The first batch arrived on April 25 and the rules for its distribution were issued by the Ministry of Health on May 2. That is, the medical aid that came for a week remained at the airport, ports. However, the lives of many patients could have been saved if the aid had reached various states as soon as it arrived.
The equipment used in critical care has been shipped to India from the US. However, most of the luggage is lying at the godown or airport.
The Red Cross Society and HLL are heaping on each other
The Government of India is taking medical help from abroad through the Red Cross Society, an NGO. On the question of not being able to reach the medical supply states, the management of the Red Cross Society says that its job is only to remove the help from the customs clearance and hand it over to the government company HLL. While HLL says its job is just to take care of help. How the help will be distributed will be decided by the Union Ministry of Health. While the Ministry of Health is silent on this.
Trouble in customs clearance
Prime Minister Modi himself says that customs clearance of medical emergency supplies should be done quickly. However, according to media reports, many consignments of aid are still in customs. Many of the country's major hospitals have ordered some items of medical needs at their own level, though they too are not getting custom clearance easily. According to sources, HLL has been entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing this help. Many medical devices are found in the godowns built around the airport.
So far only the hospitals run by the central government have been helped
. However, states like Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand say they have not yet received anything in the name of foreign aid. Even in the BJP-ruled states, help has not reached at present, though there is no talk of it.
However, the Union Ministry of Health has a slightly different approach. The ministry said in a statement that about 40 lakh items have arrived from abroad so far. It also includes all medical equipments including medicines. Of all the items that have arrived, oxygen cylinders and some life-saving drugs have been given to 38 institutions. However, according to The Hindu, most of these hospitals are run by the central government.
Taking Delhi as an example, oxygen has been made available to Led Hoarding Medical College, Safdarjung Hospital, AIIMS, DRDO and ITBP Hospital. While Delhi is one of the cities where every hospital is facing oxygen shortage.
On the medical supply of states and many hospitals, the health ministry says that the process of sending help to states like Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh is underway and help will be made available to them soon.
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