BBMP to make inventory of hospital beds

Preparing for the third wave of Covid, the BBMP has drawn up an inventory of available beds in all Bengaluru hospitals.

The inventory will have details of ICU beds, oxygen beds and other bed facilities provided at the hospitals.

The civic body has deployed teams of officials as it wants to complete the exercise in a week’s time.

“We’ve already formed 11 teams that will visit every hospital in the city in the next week and collect details of available beds,” BBMP’s Special Commissioner (Health) D Randeep said, adding that the civic body wants to avoid discrepancies in actual available beds and the number of beds private hospitals declare on the portal.

Also read: Bengaluru private hospitals’ body to submit critical report on Covid today

The inventory is expected to help the authorities ensure they allot beds to the person who actually books it via the approved channel.

“Hospitals have been told to adopt the biometric system to facilitate patient admissions,” Randeep said. “Earlier, there was a controversy about the bed being booked in one person’s name and someone else occupying it. The biometric system will end such confusion,” he said, adding that the system will also stop wrong and multiple billing.

The civic body has also instructed private hospitals to report all Covid admissions, discharges and deaths.

Health facilities must also collect the patient’s vaccination status.

“We want to collect data to analyse various trends. Be it the one vaccine dose or both, every detail along with other medical parameters will be recorded and documented,” Randeep explained.