Paytm announced its Paytm Foundation will be setting up oxygen plants in hospitals in around 12-13 cities as India faces oxygen shortage in the second COVID-19 wave. These oxygen plants would be directly installed at hospitals, which would serve the oxygen needs of the entire hospital.
Paytm Foundation has sourced over 21,000 Oxygen Concentrators that would be sent to government hospitals, COVID care facilities, private hospitals, nursing homes as well as Resident Welfare Associations in the mid of May, the company said in a statement.
Oxygen plants are devices that make the production of medical oxygen possible from ambient air while simultaneously supplying the gas to multiple beds. The company has currently raised Rs 10 crore from people across the country under its #OxygenForIndia initiative and has matched the donation amount making it a total contribution of Rs 20 crore.
Paytm is working in conjunction with other prominent organisations including Elevation Capital and the American Indian Foundation. The donation garnered under the initiative will be used to purchase Oxygen Concentrators and oxygen plants, costing between 50 lakh to 1 crore each.
The multinational e-commerce payment system and financial technology company is currently between dialogues with State Governments and hospitals for affirmation and approval to set up these oxygen plants; once purchased, the oxygen plants will be provided free of cost to government hospitals by Paytm Foundation.
A company spokesperson said, “While Oxygen Concentrators are good for short-term support, we figured oxygen plants could provide our healthcare system with larger support. Hence, we decided to direct our donations to build oxygen plants at government hospitals for free.”
The Paytm Foundation is also supporting other startups, organisations and enterprises to source OCs from the international market. This will help to minimise the timeline for logistical requirements while ensuring that hospitals and COVID care centres receive OCs sooner. The entire sourcing, regulatory approvals, and delivery will be managed by the foundation, while the other organizations will have to pay for the cost of the OCs that they will order.
