OXYGEN ANGELS
BEST OXYGEN DELIVERY INITIATIVE
WINNER: SaveLIFE Foundation, New Delhi
WHY THEY WON: Deployed 3,018 ‘Jumbo’ D-type medical oxygen cylinders, totalling a capacity of 99 MT, across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Meghalaya and Karnataka
WHEN THE PANDEMIC STRUCK, SaveLIFE Foundation responded on a war footing, putting together a team specialised in disaster relief, military supplies and emergency care and struck collaborations on a global scale to extend help. The first wave in Delhi exposed the city’s inadequate ambulance network. “The ambulance response time lengthened; in some cases, it took 10 hours for an ambulance to arrive,” recalls Piyush Tewari, founder-CEO, SaveLIFE Foundation.
The foundation arranged for 400 ambulances from the private sector to beef up the Delhi government’s fleet of 200. Using data analytics, the average ambulance response time was brought down to 20 minutes.
The second wave brought another crisis: medical oxygen. On April 23, a Delhi hospital treating Covid patients issued an alarm that its oxygen supply was about to run out. SOS calls came from several other hospitals. “Between April 23 and May 3, there were over 500 SOS calls for medical oxygen from Delhi hospitals; in many cases, it led to preventable deaths,” says Tewari.
The foundation again found a capability—rapid procurement—built over the years intersecting with the demands imposed by the oxygen crisis. The efforts that began in Delhi were expanded to 11 other states within days. Around 6,000 Type-D oxygen cylinders, with a combined capacity of 300 MT, were imported by the Delhi government with operational support from the foundation; 995 oxygen concentrators were procured by the foundation and distributed in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Goa.