BBMP hospital beds to be allotted through queue system

Beds in city hospitals, especially those run by the BBMP, will be allotted through a queue system, according to the government.

Any Covid patient who calls the BBMP war room or helpline for booking the hospital bed will be given an auto-generated queue number, the number of people on the wait list and the number of patients in hospitals.

Minister for Forest, Kannada and Culture Aravind Limbavali, the nodal minister for Covid war rooms and call centres, made the announcement at a meeting of war room officials at the Arogya Soudha, Magadi Road.

The queue system will be introduced in the city in the next two days before being rolled out in the rest of Karnataka based on public feedback.

Limbavali clarified that there will be a separate treatment facility for patients who require emergency care. "Hospital beds will be allocated based on patients' condition," he added.

This apart, the government is considering bringing changes to the software used at the war room to make it more people-friendly. This will take a few days, he said.

Patients or their attendants will get an an SMS and a four-hour window for hospitalisation. If they do not turn up within this deadline, an alert SMS will be sent to the patient/attendant and the nodal officer at the hospital.

The government will soon merge the state-level war room with the BBMP war room for better efficiency and coordination, Limbavali said.