As COVID cases rapidly rise in Bengaluru, this school is setting up a 120 bed oxygen facility on its campus
With COVID cases increasing rapidly in Bengaluru and Karnataka having recorded over 40,000 positive cases on May 4, the Canadian International School, Bangalore (CIS) in association with the Entrepreneur’s Organisation Bangalore chapter which is a network of 14,000 like-minded entrepreneurs with 180 chapters in 60 countries is converting the school’s boarding block into an 120-bed oxygen center. This facility will cater to those who do not need critical medical care but are in dire need of oxygen. CIS has offered their facility on a not-for-profit basis as part of their contribution to the cause. The EO is leading the campaign, ‘Take a pledge. Save Bangalore from Suffocating — 100 Lakhs, 100 beds, 100s of lives’, to raise funds and other resources for the oxygen center at the school. Meanwhile Cytecare Cancer Hospitals is the medical partner and will operate and manage the facility. The facility is expected to be ready around mid-May.
As part of the first phase of the campaign, CIS intends to equip around 50 beds in the shortest possible time to meet the current demand. In the second phase, the plan is to support the costs needed to scale up this infrastructure to 120 beds. The cost of each oxygen bed with consumables would be around Rs 1 lakh and the EO therefore plans to mobilize Rs 1 crore for the oxygen beds at CIS. The funds would be utilized for purchase of oxygen concentrators and associated accessories. CIS and EO are working with various organizations to source 5 litre oxygen concentrators for each bed.
CIS would be tying up with Cytecare Cancer Hospital as the medical partner for this oxygen facility. Cytecare will provide the medical expertise, medical personnel and run the facility end-to-end. They will also set up an organised channel through which oxygen beds can be allocated. The oxygen centre will do a medical screening of patients on arrival to understand their needs. If patients need more medical attention, then they will be guided to a hospital.
Shweta Shastri, Managing Director, CIS
Anuj Jhunjhunwala, EO Bangalore Chapter President 2020-21 said, “We have in the past come together in a small way during the first wave of the pandemic. This year we have come together to make a larger impact, hoping to make a contribution in the war against covid. After lot of deliberations, should we help with oxygen cylinders, should we help with food distribution, and other ideas, our member Shweta Sastri came forward and offered the hostel of her school, the Canadian International School, to be repurposed as an Oxygen Bed Centre, and we have tied up with Cytecare to manage the facility. We all felt OUR CITY NEEDS IT and launched this project with the theme Save Bangalore from Suffocating. Our fundraising target is 100 lakhs for 100 beds in 100 hours. SRLC is our platinum partner for our project with a donation of 30 lakhs.”
Shweta Sastri, Managing Director, Canadian International School said, “We know we are living in an emergency situation and that people desperately need oxygen. The entire country is reeling under the pandemic and we thought we should do something for the community. Together with EO, we felt lack of oxygen to be the most critical issue now and that’s how the idea of the center came about. We are grateful to EO for its effort to raise financial resources for the campaign and to Cytecare Cancer Hospitals for stepping in as the medical partner to run the oxygen facility.”
