KTR launches 10-Bed-ICU project in Telangana

Minister says 1,600 ICU beds have been added in last seven years in Telangana

Hyderabad: Industries Minister KT Rama Rao said in the last seven years, Telangana government has added 1,600 ICU beds, apart from setting up five new medical colleges while another seven medical colleges were in the pipeline.

The Minister formally launched the 10-Bed-ICU initiative virtually on Saturday. The 10-Bed-ICU (10BedICU.org) is a PPP (private-public-partnership) project between State Government and a group of NGOs. Under the banner of 10-Bed-ICU, the first critical care ICU unit was launched in Narayanpet district of Telangana. The goal of the 10-Bed-ICU project is to cover every district in India with at least one 10-Bed-ICU facility to combat Covid waves in rural India.

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Industries Minister KT Rama Rao and Vinod Khosla, founder partner, Khosla Ventures, CA, USA, were chief guests of the event. After the formation of Telangana, CM KCR has given a top priority to healthcare infrastructure in the State, the Minister said during the virtual launch of the Telangana 10-Bed-ICU Program.

He also informed that Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad presently has one of the largest ICUs in the country with 600 beds.

The Minister promised to support the 10-Bed-ICU project to not only cover 33 district and area Government secondary hospitals in Telangana, but also to help take this initiative to the rest of the country. The Minister listed several initiatives in Telangana to prepare the State for the third and subsequent Covid waves.

Vinod Khosla, who has already funded several 10-Bed-ICUs in Telangana, announced at the launch event that he would further fund 100 more district hospitals with 10-Bed-ICU across the country.

He stressed the need for a technology platform and remote specialist assistance to help rural hospitals. His tweet in response to the oxygen distress in New Delhi to fund any hospital that needed assistance got retweeted 20,000 times and got a lot of momentum in highlighting the acute shortage of critical care, especially in rural India.

Mahesh Bhagwat, Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda extended his support for expanding the program beyond Telangana.

Srikanth Nadhamuni the founder CTO of Aadhaar, the co-founder behind 10-Bed-ICU said they would launch ICU units in every district of the country.

The program consists of 10-Bed-ICU equipment donation, Covid Management Technology Platform, Doctor Connect program to get specialists through Telemedicine from India, United States and United Kingdom to help patients in rural areas and a live training module to train doctors, nurses and ANMs on the ever changing pandemic. Currently,  they are working in four states, including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The 10-Bed-ICU project is a partnership of 5 NGOs – eGovernments Foundation (http://egovernments.org), Nirmaan Organization (http://nirmaan.org), Karuna Trust (http://karunatrust.org), CoronaSafe (coronasafe.network) and GiveIndia Foundation (GiveIndia.org).

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