Amid the rampant rise in COVID infection and the cost of treatment supplies, a ‘Doctor Couple’ from Mumbai’s Cuffe Parade has started to collect unused medicines from recovered patients and distributing them to the needy. This citizen initiative called ‘Meds for More’ has assimilated around 20 kilograms of COVID drugs, including antibiotics, Fabiflu, pain relief, steroids, inhalers, vitamins, antacids, among others, in the last 10 days. All these supplies have been packaged and donated to the initiative’s NGO partners.
Every medicine dose counts
The unprecedented rise of COVID-19 infection has led to a shortage of COVID-19 supplies along with sudden inflation in the cost of the same. This has added up to the woes of the needy and the unprivileged who are not able to arrange for treatment drugs in time. Meds for More aims to resolve these issues and has been vigorously engaged in arranging and donating essential medicines to the people in time.
Started 10 days ago by Dr Marcus Ranney and his wife Dr Raina, Meds for More collect medicines from housing societies and donates them to those who cannot afford them. The cornerstone of this cause was found when a family member of the Doctors’ staff was tested COVID positive but could not arrange for the needed expensive medication. This is when the couple arranged for medicines from a few recovered patients and donated it to their staff.
As the word got around, residents from neighbouring buildings started to volunteers to collect medicines. In just 10 days of its inception, ‘Meds for More’ has inducted around 100 buildings as part of its cause. Dr Marcus Ranney and Dr Raina have set up a team of 7-8 people along with building volunteers to run the operations of this drive smoothly. As per reports, all medicines collected from these sources will now be relayed to primary health centres across rural India to boost timely treatment of the coronavirus infection.
COVID awareness creates COVID support:
Additionally, other medical equipments like pulse oximeters and thermometers have also made it to their collection list as people are getting more aware of the disasters caused by the pandemic across the country. The initiative is a statement of the goodwill of the public who are creating self-sustaining support systems for each other amid the emergency hour of the pandemic.
