***Update: The devastating earthquake in Nepal has raised the urgency of ICU Care Boxes and critical care assistance to the Nepalese people to a new level.
The Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) is facing a second wave of critically ill patients after the second earthquake on May 12th.
As a result, we have decided to extend the ICU Care Box Campaign.
We are still accepting donations - please click "Select a Perk" > Continue > Add the Contribution
**N.B. Donations to the ICU Care Boxes are being used directly to treat patients and are not being penalized/redirected by the civil authorities.
We have been in touch with the Nepal Critical Care Development Foundation (NCCDF) who are using your donations to purchase more ICU Care Boxes for hospital patients and for patients in the outlying regions.
We are in urgent need of donations to help replenish the ICU Care Boxes supplies.
Ordinarily, $US8,000 pays to fund one ICU Care box per bed for one year but the overwhelming patient volumes means that this patient time cycle has been shortened dramatically.
A podcast given by Dr. Laura Hawryluck for the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) on the impact that the ICU Care Boxes are having is available on the SCCM website.
***
The Need:
The majority of the Nepali people are poor and cannot pay for health care as there is no health insurance system.Every year patients needlessly lose their lives in an ICU in Nepal just because they cannot afford to buy essential drugs and medical equipment required for their treatment. To compound matters, in an emergency situation, health care workers will order the required equipment and medications,but then the patient’s family must leave the ICU to retrieve, pay for, and return with the supplies to ICU which costs precious minutes in a life and death situation.
The Solution:
Nepal Critical Care Development Foundation (NCCDF):a non-profit non-governmental organization dedicated to improving Critical Care Medicine in Nepal. Dr.Subhash Acharya is the President of the foundation.
Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH): one of the oldest and largest public hospitals in Nepal. TUTH provides high quality, relatively affordable tertiary level health services to people of lower socioeconomic status from across Nepal.
To improve timely and equitable access to lifesaving treatments, NCCDF is pioneering the NCCDF ICU Care Box. This box is a collection of essential medical equipment and supplies located within the ICU for rapid access in an emergency situation. Patients will be asked to replenish the supplies after the emergency has passed. For those unable to afford replenishment, the supplies will be a donation for their care.
The NCCDF Care Boxes are initially being trialled at TUTH. The ultimate goal is to expand the scope to all public hospital ICUs in Nepal.
* Please note that we are unable to provide a Canadian charity tax receipt for funds donated towards this project.
** All contributions towards this initiative are in US dollars.
The Numbers:
For an 11 bed ICU, we estimate a single Care Box will cost $2000 USD and last 3 months. Annual cost is thus $8000 USD. The foundation will check the inventory at regular intervals, monitoring depletion rate and replacing supplies as required.
If NCCDF is unable to collect the required funds for an ICU Care Box, the money that has been collected will be donated to the NCCDF Poor Patients Fund. The Poor Patient Fund is used to help patients afford their medications during their stay in the ICU.
Summary
NCCDF staff continually witness needless suffering and death within Nepali ICUs due to delays or financial barriers in accessing supplies. The NCCDF Care Box is a simple, inexpensive solution to help improve patient care. Every donation counts no matter how small because even the purchase of a single syringe can make all the difference when saving someone’s life.
THE IMPACT
Any contribution made toward saving lives are always valuable either be it monetary or non-monetary. This project is valuable in the sense that this box will help save a number of lives. We have witnessed how people have suffered needlessly and unnecessarily just because they cannot afford to buy medications in an emergency situation.
This is the first of the care box being implemented at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH). We are confident of the success and hope to expand the project to other public hospital ICUs in Nepal.
We look forward to your support.
The list of medical supplies and equipment in the Care Box:
S. No. |
Name |
Quantity |
1. |
CVP Catheter- Triple Lumen |
5 |
2. |
Arterial Line transducer |
5 |
3. |
Disposable Ventilator Circuit |
5 |
4. |
Catheter Mount |
5 |
5. |
HME Filter |
5 |
6. |
Chest Tube 28 G |
5 |
7. |
Water Seal Drain |
5 |
8. |
Pressure Bag for Fluid Resuscitation |
5 |
9. |
Ringer’s Lactate (1 Liter Bag) |
10 |
10. |
IV Cannula 16G |
20 |
11. |
IV Cannula 20G |
20 |
12. |
IV Cannula 18G |
20 |
13. |
IV Fluid infusion set |
20 |
14. |
Three-way stopcock |
20 |
15. |
Syringe 10 cc |
20 |
16. |
Syringe 5 cc |
20 |
17. |
Syringe 50 cc |
20 |
18. |
Dobutamine vial |
5 |
19. |
Vasopressin ampule |
5 |
20. |
Noradrenaline ampule |
5 |
21. |
NS 1000 ml plastic pouch |
10 |
22. |
Male to Male PM Line |
10 |
23. |
Male to female PM Line |
10 |
24. |
Vancomycin 1gm vial |
5 |
25. |
Piperacillin Tazobactam 4.5gm vial |
5 |
26. |
Cefepime 1gm vial |
5 |
27. |
Amikacin 500 mg vial |
5 |
28. |
Metronidazole 500 mg vial |
5 |
29. |
Ceftriaxone 1 gm vial |
5 |
30. |
Ceftazidime 1gm vial |
5 |
31. |
Levofloxacin 750 mg vial |
5 |
32. |
Sterile Gloves Pairs |
10 pairs |
33. |
Pressure Infusion (1000ml) |
3 |
34. |
IBP Transducer |
5 |
35. |
Suture Removal Kit |
5 |
36. |
Gauze Sponges |
1 box |
37. |
Tegaderm |
10 |
38. |
Blood Transfusion Set |
5 |
39. |
Chlorhexidine Prep |
5 |
| |
TOTAL: |
340 |
Follow us at Facebook www.facebook.com/nccdf and visit www.nccdfnepal.org for more information.
Thank you.
