London: Fresh quantities of medical supplies collected by Indian doctors in the UK are due to arrive at Mumbai International Airport on Wednesday, the Indian High Commission in London has confirmed.
The urgently needed equipment consisting of 122 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators is the first in a series of medical airlifts organised by BAPIO, the British Association of Physicians of India Origin, that is being transported free of charge by Qatar Airways from the UK to India.
Qatar Airways is being utilised for three more airlifts next week followed by one with Etihad.
In India, BAPIO is working in collaboration with the Mukul Madhav Charitable Foundation.
At Mumbai, the ventilators and oxygen concentrators will be loaded on to lorries for distribution across eight cities including Nagpur where the authorities have taken over two leading hotels and converted them into temporary hospitals.
BAPIO president Dr Ramesh Mehta told The Wire that 560 doctors in the UK have made digital expertise available to their exhausted counterparts in Nagpur and other cities. “We have 600 doctors who have volunteered their help to fight COVID-19 in India and out of those 600 we have 560 working via a telemedia platform. We are participating in virtual ward rounds, CT scans and one-to-one consultations in the converted hotels and tent hospitals that are being set up.”
Indian doctors in the UK are part of a much wider international diaspora of Indian medical expertise that consists of 1.4 million NRI doctors spread across 53 countries. Many are registered with the Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, GAPIO, headed by Delhi-based Apollo Hospitals Group Director Dr Anupam Sibal.
“The overall response from our members has been overwhelming and I just want to thank everyone for their commitment and lending their support,” Dr Sibal told The Wire. “The US and the UK are the two countries where we got the largest response, but everyone has chipped in.”
BAPIO’s is the latest in a series of government and privately funded initiatives to get help to COVID-19 victims in India. The US, UK and Russian government have all sent emergency supplies. Their efforts have been supplemented with offers of help from the Chinese Red Cross and other emergency initiatives launched by Save the Children, Islamic Relief, Oxfam and MasterCard.
Asked about the medical airlift from UK organised with Qatar Airways, a spokesman for the Indian High Commission in London, said, “Yes, it is confirmed.”