Bengaluru: New website to track beds in private hospitals launched

Bengaluru: Health Minister Dr K, Sudhakar on Sunday inaugurated a website(https://searchmybed.com/#/p/public-portal) created by Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA), to provide status on Covid-19 beds in private hospitals across Bengaluru. Government quota beds in all healthcare facilities and government-run Covid Care Centres can be tracked in this https://bbmpgov.com/chbms/ portal. Speaking at the event, Dr Sudhakar appreciated PHANA for this effort and stressed that all the hospitals must update the data in real-time. According to the statement issued, "in the coming days, once the platform becomes stable it should be extended to the entire state. He appreciated that technology in health care will bring in transparency and will enhance trust of the people. He also spoke of how telemedicine and tele-ICU can enhance effective health care."

The portal comes at a time when Bengaluru is reeling under a lack of oxygenated beds, ICU and ventilator facilities. At the time of writing among the 1,699 beds available, only three were free. "As the central bed management system has information on the availability of beds under the government quota, our portal will show bed status in private hospitals under their (private) quota for admitting COVID-19 patients. "COVID-19 patients who want to get treated at private hospitals, can check the bed status for admission at the earliest" PHANA further added.

According to the reports, to meet the growing demand for beds due to rising cases of COVID-19 during the pandemic's second wave, the state government has directed private hospitals and nursing homes to reserve 50% of their beds to treat COVID-19 patients referred by its Health Department or state-run hospitals.

Dr Rajashekar, Secretary of PHANA said "it's a simple and easy-to-use portal. It will display the number of vacant beds available from among the registered private hospitals. Hospital phone numbers and a location map are also given. The hospitals need to update the data periodically as and when discharges happen. In the coming days, more and more hospitals will be enrolled and hospitals will be encouraged to display the data in real-time".

This portal provides information on the number of COVID-19 patients in private hospitals under the private quota, bed status/availability and the contact number for admission, as the data is uploaded in real-time. Private hospitals are required to upload data on general HDU, ICU and ICU-ventilator beds available and this should be displayed at their help desks for the benefit of patients.