Second Wave – Urgent Needs
On April 30th India recorded over 400,000 new cases of COVID. This is almost double from the 200,000 on 15th April, in just over two weeks.
CMC Vellore urgently needs your help for patient care and equipment.
This second surge has been accompanied by a shortage of beds, oxygen and ICU facilities throughout India. We dedicated the first COVID web page to the need for Oxygen & BPAP machines. But we still need help to subsidise treatment for patients who are financially challenged, to equip more ICU beds and to help protect our staff.
Donate and help us:
- Create another 1,000 beds for Covid patients.
- Care for a moderately ill COVID patient – who doesn’t need ICU treatment.
- Care for an ICU COVID patient – with severe COVID including ventilation.
- Buy equipment: Donate any amount for ventilators and other equipment.
- Another ICU will be opened as soon as we can.
- Ventilators are scarce but a supplier has agreed to send 25, costing awaited.
Can you help? Patient Care
CMC Vellore urgently needs your help for COVID patient care and equipment. Here are some of the ways you can help us:
Urgent Need: Subsidising Patient Care
There were 1,000 patients in September 2020 who we provided subsidy for COVID care. Nearly 50% of our patients need a subsidy. The need for support for patients with COVID is going to be even greater in this second surge.
Costs for moderately sick patients
A moderately sick patient needing level 2 care will cost around Rs. 7,500 to Rs. 8,000 per day. That covers all their needs. Most will be in hospital and need this care for 10 to 14 days. The table below summaries the costs.
| Level 2 Care for 1 patient | Total cost Rs |
|---|---|
| One Day | ₹7,500+ |
| Fourteen days | ₹1,05,000+ |
Costs for very sick patients
Around 5% of people who catch COVID will become very sick and need ICU care. Without this care, many will die. Their medical needs are extensive and the costs reflect this. We need to subsidise about half of these patients, so 2.5% of those who are COVID positive. On average, a sick patient is in ICU for 10 days.
The table below shows the costs and includes the ventilation, the oxygen therapy, medicines, tubes, needles etc needed along with all professional fees etc.
| Level 3 Care for 1 patient | Total cost Rs |
|---|---|
| One Day | ₹28,000+ |
| Ten days | ₹2,80,000+ |
Urgent Need: New ICU beds
Kannigapuram also needs new ICU beds. There will be a total of 150 ICU beds in Kannigapuram once the hospital is completed, hopefully later in 2021.
We therefore need the equipment for these beds. The total cost of equipment for an ICU bed is Rs.19,12,780. The breakdown of the costing for each bed is given below.
| Equipment needed per bed | Unit Cost Rs |
|---|---|
| Ventilator: intermediate to high grade x1 | ₹14,52,22 |
| Monitor: low end x1 | ₹2,50,000 |
| Syringe Infusion Pumps x3 | ₹1,27,680 |
| Infusion Pumps for fluids x1 | ₹42,560 |
| Food Pumps x1 | ₹40,320 |
| Total cost for 1 ICU bed | ₹19,12,780 |
Paul Brand Block ICU beds
Sadly the COVID ICU beds are generally full. However, as non-COVID ICU beds become vacant they can start to dedicate more ICU beds for COVID patients. The Paul Brand centre opened on May 5th with 12 new ICU beds.
This will be an orthopaedic block eventually. But for now it will help cope with the large numbers of patients coming to the hospital during this COVID surge.
The block has 12 new ICU beds plus 105 other beds. There are also new XRay, Ultrasound, CT Scan and MRI scan facilities. These will be put to use during this second COVID surge. A new operation theatre suite has 8 fully equipped theatres. These have the air filtration needed for a patient with COVID who needs an operation. Later on these theatres will be dedicated to the surgery for orthopaedic patients.
Can you help? PPE
Can you help us? We desperately need:
Prayer – for patients and staff.
Pray for the patients for their recovery. And pray for their families as they are separated from their loved ones at such a distressing time. Pray for our staff as they work hard to look after patients and for protection for our staff.
Patient care – help us treat those with no funds
Everyone deserves expert care in this time of need. Your gift will help pay for treatment, medicines, diagnostic tests. Patients infected with the corona virus (CoVid-19) are looked after in isolation wards. Some may require ICU care. We will also provide food for the patient and their relative if they need this.
Extra protection for our staff with PPE – to reduce infections
Any amount is helpful for this worthy cause. Medical Professionals are at the frontline of the fight against Covid-19. We need masks, gloves and more to protect our dedicated doctors, nurses and allied-health professionals.
Help with PPE
CMC currently spends 3 crore per month on PPE keeping our staff safe.
- Companies can donate CSR funds towards this urgent need.
- Donations in kind are welcomed eg masks, shields.
- Individual donations are eligible for income tax relief under S.80G
| Cost of PPE kit for ONE person | Cost, Rs |
|---|---|
| Per Week* | ₹ 3,300 |
| Per Month** | ₹ 14,300 |
N95 mask and shield not included as they are reused.
Donate and keep our staff safe:
CMC: Committed to serving
With the pandemic still sweeping the world, CMC Vellore remains committed to serving and caring for our patients. You can read stories from the early days of the pandemic in this beautiful anthology “Messengers of Peace”
You can read more about them on this web page or download the anthology directly below:
Help our patients and staff:
Donate now!
What we did in 2020
You can read more about what CMC did to Fight the first surge of the COVID Pandemic on this page:
This includes details of the 3 awards CMC was given in 2020 for their COVID work.
You can read more details of the awards here: Awards for Excellence in 2020
What you did in 2020
Thank you for all you gave to help with patient care and equipment for patient care and staff safety. Read what your donations helped to do in the first surge in 2020.
Information about COVID
The CMC website has information and resources about COVID for everyone. This includes appointments at CMC, expert views on the disease, how to wear a mask etc.
You can read it here: COVID Information
Calculation assumptions
Numbers quoted on this page are based on the following assumptions:
*6 working days in a week
**26 working days in a month
