Pune clubs open Covid ICU for the lesser-privileged

RI Director Bharat Pandya inaugurated a Rotary Covid-19 ICU facility at a Pune hospital listed under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Yojana that treats only underprivileged patients. Twelve Rotary clubs in Pune, RID 3131, jointly set up this exclusive ICU for coronavirus patients under a global grant which was approved quickly.

With a grant value of $94,750, the facility was put up at rapid speed and inaugurated in just three weeks after the project got approved for funding. The facility is equipped with ­ventilators, patient monitors, syringe pumps, ­defibrillators, ECGs, ­Laryngoscopes, PPE kits and testing kits, among others, for treating Covid patients.

The ICU will continue to serve needy patients even after the Covid ­crisis, said Rtn Sudin Apte, past ­president, RC Pune Pristine. At ­present, the ICU is treating 50 Covid patients. Later on, the facility will offer free treatment to at least 500 patients a year, he said.