BBMP acts to streamline bed allocations for Covid-19 patients

Faced with a litany of complaints from Covid-19 patients and their families who are unable to secure beds in hospitals, the BBMP has moved to streamline how beds are allocated.

In a new circular, D Randeep, Special Commissioner, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has made it mandatory for all admissions and discharges of Covid-19 patients to be done through the Covid-19 Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS), set up by the Palike and the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST).

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This applies to both Covid-19 patients referred under the government quota of beds and for private beds administered by Private Medical Establishments.

The new system does away with the previous method of issuing physical admission slips or referral letters by BBMP zonal commissioners, which had come severe criticism for being unregulated and arbitrary.

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Activists and volunteers involved in bed allocation in the city told DH that the referral letters and slips were notoriously difficult to obtain from certain zonal authorities. This led to a swathe of patients attempting to secure a hospital on their own, which often created bed shortages with non-critical patients occupying the limited number of beds available for Covid-19 care.

However, the circular adds that in the case of technical issues with the CHBMS online portal, the director of the portal will issue a notification to hospitals about the site being down, during time hospitals can insist upon a physical BBMP referral letter from the patient, during the “duration of the notification.”