A day after the announcement of tweaks in the Central Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS) portal, the Chief Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Gaurav Gupta said that, going forward, all the hospitals in a particular zone will come under the IAS and IPS officer-in-charge. Earlier, only a few hospitals were under the SAST portal while the CHBMS portal was allotted to IAS and IPS officers, but now, all hospitals will be under the purview of these officers.
One of the key issues is timely discharge of patients, which Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa addressed on Tuesday. “Despite doctors asking them to be discharged, as many as 503 patients continue to stay in hospital beyond 20 days. They should be asked to continue treatment at home so that these beds can be allocated to the needy,” said the CM.
Citing war room data, he said that 6,500 patients were in hospital for 1-10 days and 1,900 patients for 11-20 days. A total of 337 patients had been hospitalised for 30 days or more.
“What is the necessity for patients to be in hospital for so many days when serious patients are not getting beds?”
An order of the BBMP stated that hospital nodal officers will work along with Arogya Mitras to ensure timely discharge of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 as per the SOP, and that the same is reflected in the SAST portal.
The initial period of admission is for 10 days, and hospitals are required to submit requests online for extension of treatment at an interval of five days.
24-hour deadline for taking over 50% of beds in private hospitals
The Karnataka government has set a deadline of 24 hours for bureaucrats to conduct an on-ground audit of all hospitals in the city and take over 50% of beds for the government quota. Hospitals with 30 beds or less, which were not giving any beds to the government, will also have to hand over 50% of their beds to the government. Officials have been asked to book cases against private hospitals that do not adhere to the rules.
Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Revenue Minister R. Ashok told civic officials to increase beds by at least 5,000 in the next two days by taking over more beds from private hospitals and increasing beds in step-down hospitals.
