MISSION ICU – SAVING LIVES, ONE ICU BED AT A TIME
Mission ICU, a social initiative working exclusively towards building critical care infrastructure in the tier 2 towns and rural parts of India, has successfully completed the installation of 100 ICU beds in 10 months.
In February 2022 itself they embarked on a massive 40 bed installation across 4 tier 2 towns in Maharashtra, installing 10 beds each, at Dhule, Sangli, Nanded and Buldhana, bringing the count to 100. This initiative is a crucial step towards strengthening critical care infrastructure across non-metro towns, which are in dire need of support, at present and in the future.
Mission ICU was founded in the peak of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, with the objective of bridging the urban and rural gap of critical care infrastructure by identifying under-resourced hospitals in rural India and installing a set of 10 new ICU beds facility to address healthcare emergencies during and beyond the pandemic.
“When a pandemic or other natural disasters hit, it is the rural and the remote areas that suffer the most due to lack of healthcare facilities. Growing up in small towns, I know from experience that most people in small towns go to the government hospitals for acute and emergency care. Through Mission ICU, our goal is to mobilize the spirit of philanthropy of global corporations and individuals to build a sustainable model of critical care in small towns, specifically by strengthening the public hospitals infrastructure,” Mission ICU co-founder Dr. Ashwin Naik said.
The initiative has caught the attention of many eminent organisations which came on board to support Mission ICU, including Arogya World, USA, Crypto Relief, United Way Bengaluru, Kantar, Wadhwani Foundation, USAID’s SAMRIDH Health initiative. Across 10 locations, Mission ICU has successfully increased the critical care capacity by 49.7% (an average of total ICU capacity increased compared to earlier capacity of the hospitals). These installations are estimated to save and impact the lives of 48000 people annually.
With the implementation of robust infrastructure at the heart of the organization, Mission ICU has already been successful in installing 100 ICU beds across the country. Their unique 10 ICU Bed kit is standardized and includes beds, medical equipment, and installation support. They provide an end-to-end solution, right from sourcing funding, to due diligence, hospital selection, equipment procurement, and finally installation. The hospitals participating in this initiative were shortlisted post verification of numerous factors such as ability to accommodate extra beds, caseload during COVID-19, population ratio, and existing medical infrastructure.
Mission ICU flagship project was carried out in May 2021 in the Tumkur district of Karnataka, followed by installation in Chikmagalur, Ballari, Gadag and Yadgir. Apart from Karnataka, they expanded their project to other states including Nabarangpur, Odisha, and recent installations of 4 locations in Maharashtra in February 2022 namely, Sangli, Dhule, Buldhana, and Nanded making the tally of 100-bed installations in just 10 months. In the coming months, Mission ICU aims to expand its operations in the Northeast and Uttar Pradesh.
“This Covid wave has exposed the urban rural divide in terms of the critical healthcare infrastructure and this is the time when everyone’s attention is towards building better healthcare infrastructure. So at Mission ICU, we are leveraging the PPP (Private Public Partnership) Model to capacitate Rural District Hospitals with state-of-the-art ICU beds that will create a sustainable impact which will last beyond COVID-19. We have reached the first milestone of deploying 100 ICU beds and our target is to reach 1000 ICU beds across Rural India,“ Mission ICU co-founder Mr. Maanoj Shah said.