Drawing flak from the opposition and civil society that there was no clear information on the availability of beds in Bengaluru to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka government on Wednesday asked all private hospitals in the city to display information at their reception counter itself.
Though a Government Order (GO) issued earlier states that 50% of all hospital beds under Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits should be reserved for COVID-19 patients, it has been reported that several citizens were struggling to find a hospital bed, at government and private institutions.
In a notification dated July 15, the government has said, “...some patients are finding difficulty in getting beds even after the allocation is made by (the) central allocation system of BBMP. This is causing a lot of hardship to patients. Therefore, it is made mandatory that all hospitals registered under Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (KPME) Act should display at the reception counter, a bed allocation display board.”
The state government said that the board should should display the following details:
1. Name of the Hospital.
2. Total number of beds (as per of KPME registration)
3. Total number of beds allocated for COVID-19 patients referred by BBMP (Minimum 50% of total hospital beds)
The government mandated that the board should also have a column titled reserved, occupied and available, notifying the breakdown of beds.
Further, the notification stated that the “data must corroborate with the data of the central bed allocation system of BBMP.”
The notification issued by Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said that the board should be ready by Thursday.
“Display board should be arranged by July 16. Noncompliance of this order will attract punishment under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Indian Penal Code,” the notification stated.
The BBMP has also set up a dashboard showing real-time bed availability for COVID-19 patients, which can be accessed here.