Aug 17
Helping the Periphery
Helping the Periphery
DUE to obvious reasons, when it comes to a disaster, metro cities draw more focus and charity - be it from the government or private entities. Correspondingly, such acts of charity attract much media focus. But what about smaller cities and towns that mostly lack adequate infrastructure to mitigate a crisis? Thankfully, there are some entities, perhaps limited in number, who undertake charitable exercises in such places and often away from the media limelight!
 
In addition to the overall corporate level contributions, L&T recently donated several medical and allied equipment to two government hospitals in Surat, making them well equipped to deal with the growing number of COVID cases in this Gujarat city. On top of the list is an Advanced Cardiac Life Support Ambulance (ACLS), costing several lakhs of rupees, provided to the New Civil Hospital – the designated COVID hospital for Surat.
 
This was a much sought-after facility in the times of the COVID pandemic, when hospitals often run out of ICU beds and patients succumb while being transferred in regular ambulances to some other hospital that has a vacant ICU bed. With L&T Hazira unit having donated the ACLS ambulance, the New Civil Hospital is now able to transfer critical patients, if and whenever needed, with nearly all the support system typical of an ICU.
 
L&T has also donated two automated laundry machines with dryer, three Karcher floor scrubbers and a sophisticated bio-medical waste van to the hospital. These will not only lessen the burdens of the staff but also help curb the spread of coronavirus and other infectious disease. The list doesn’t end here! Among the other items that L&T has donated are a Biochemistry Autoanalyser-ERBA XL 1000, three mobile X-ray units and one ultrasonography machine aimed at handling the increased flow of laboratory / radiological investigations. 
 
These equipment are in addition to the regular COVID protection kits and medical devices that the company has already donated. L&T has provided as many as 1861 PPEs and 7,851 N95 masks to New Civil Hospital for corona warriors. Also,75 tabletop pulse oximeters, 150 finger pulse oximeters, 25 nebulisers, 40 stethoscopes, 40 BP instruments, two laryngoscope and two ECG machines were provided to New Civil Hospital and the Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education & Research, a teaching hospital. 
 
MEDIA CARE
Journalists – both who wield pen or camera - are among the frontrunning COVID warriors. On the line of duty to dig for information and keep the public informed, they often visit places that common people are scared to go to in during this fearsome pandemic. Taking this into consideration, L&T has come to the aid of the media fraternity. In the last few months, it has donated protective gears comprising PPE Kits, N95 masks or equivalent, gloves, sanitisers, etc. to these COVID warriors through the Press Clubs in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.