As India’s COVID-19 tragedy escalated, Sydney intensivist Dr Dhaval Ghelani couldn’t treat patients in person, so he took to Zoom to help out.

The Blacktown Hospital intensive care specialist was part of a drive by a charity to set up a 50-bed hospital for critically ill coronavirus patients in an impoverished rural region in India in just 10 days.

The not-for-profit Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur repurposed a rehabilitation centre, then sourced beds, ventilators, medications and recruited staff for the hospital in the town of Dharampur in Gujarat State, Western India.

That’s where the charity’s Australian president Dr Ghelani came in, giving a crash course in intensive care to the doctors and nurses at the facility that treats patients for free.