BBMP revises bed blocking protocol as Covid cases decline

Bengaluru: With a decline in Covid cases the centralised hospital bed management system (CHBMS) shows that 70% of beds in government hospitals and government medical hospitals reserved for coronavirus patients remain unoccupied. While occupancy is 30% in government hospitals and 27% in government medical hospitals, it is lower in private hospitals at 20% and 9% at private medical colleges.

In this regard, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has revised the bed blocking protocol, according to which the bed blocking will be allowed first only in government medical establishments, and only after it reaches 90% occupancy (in government run facilities), private facilities will be considered.

Earlier, to ensure bed availability for all Covid positive patients, the government had made it compulsory to reserve 50% of beds in private medical facilities in the city for patients referred by BBMP or government.

A circular issued by BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad, who is also the chairperson of the COVID-19 Patient Shifting Taskforce, stated that with a view to reorient the focus on bed blocking towards government medical establishments it is directed that all bed blocking for COVID-19 positive cases taken up by the zonal command and control centres using the Centralised Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS) portal for general and HDU beds will now be restricted to government hospitals and government medical colleges.

This will be followed until the general and HDU bed availability at government-run facilities fall below 10%.

The circular also highlighted that ICU and ICU-ventilator beds will also be preferably provided at government-run facilities. However, in exceptionally critical cases, where the nearest facility needs to be provided or specialised critical care of the patient mandates specific private facility admission, the ICU/ ICU-ventilator beds in private facilities could be considered.