PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Oct 7: The district administration of Gumla and Tata Steel Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding today, to provide advanced medical equipment and increase the capacity of government healthcare centres in the district.
This is part of the five-year MoU signed between Gumla district administration and Tata Steel Foundation for enhancing healthcare services by strengthening government healthcare institutions.
This includes a comprehensive plan to support the district with critical medical equipment, renovation of existing health infrastructure and building capacities of functionaries of the health department in the district.
The healthcare upgrade will include government healthcare centres in remote areas where significant gaps exist in healthcare facilities.
After undertaking several large-scale public health interventions during Covid -19 pandemic which included setting up free Covid Care Hospitals for the community, setting up oxygen plants for government hospitals and Covid vaccination of more than 2.5 lakh people in Jharkhand.
Tata Steel Foundation will now be providing several life-saving medical equipments to the Gumla district administration to benefit the citizens of the district.
Besides upgrading healthcare centres in remote areas of the district, the Foundation will also establish the first CT Scan machine in the district hospital, in addition to an advanced fluoroscope X-ray machine and a Central Pathology Laboratory at District Hospital, Gumla. These facilities shall directly benefit the people of Gumla.
Speaking on the occasion, Sourav Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Steel Foundation, said: “Our learning from the Covid experience has been to look at creating systemic changes and addressing infrastructure gaps for communities in Jharkhand which currently have the least access to advanced medical care. We are committed to addressing the needs at Gumla and are hopeful that patients and the community at large will now receive enhanced medical care close to their places of stay.”
As part of the agreement, the Foundation will provide state-of-the-art medical equipment and hospital furniture worth Rs 5 crores to the district administration.
This includes 100 advanced ICU bed sets, several critical and life-saving medical equipment such as HFNO (High Flow Nasal Oxygen) equipment, NIV (Non-Invasive Ventilators), 30 ICU monitors, 2 defibrillators, 100 oxygen regulators, syringe pumps, 100 cardiac trolleys, 100 saline stands and other critical medical equipment.
