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COVID-19: Portal on beds in private hospitals to go live on Wednesday

Published - May 04, 2021 07:29 am IST

PHANA attributes delay to technical issues

Currently, citizens can look at the Central Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS) to ascertain where beds are available in government and private hospitals under the government quota. A similar system will soon go live for beds available under private quota.

The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) will be launching the ‘Search My Bed’ portal that provides information on availability of beds in private hospitals by Wednesday, said Prasanna H.M., president, PHANA.

“We were running the portal privately, but there were some technical issues that cropped up. We are providing training to hospital staff on updating information on bed availability in real time. We will go live by Wednesday,” he confirmed.

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According to a press release from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), 11,000 beds were available in both government and private hospitals in BBMP limits. Over the past five days, 5,013 beds had been allocated through the system.

On Monday, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta issued an order directing all hospitals registered under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act to mandatorily register on PHANA’s portal and update data on vacant bed position category-wise in real time. Hospitals have also been directed to install a board indicating the above information near the citizen help desk created by the BBMP. Failure to comply would invite action under KPME Act, Disaster Management Act, 2005, the order stated.

Taking note of the non-transparent and arbitrary manner of triaging patients and assigning beds using the CHBMS, Mr. Gupta has issued another order constituting a committee to study the existing practice of bed allotment and suggest ways to make it transparent and robust.

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The committee will comprise V. Ponnuraj, nodal officer for State War Room, Kumar Pushkar, nodal officer for CHBMS, and Vipin Singh, nodal officer for 1912 helpline. The order stated that simultaneous remedial action will be taken to rectify defects, if any. The committee has been directed to submit a report within 24 hours.

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