Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has upgraded its portal, COVID-19 Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS), which will now enable the Physical Triage Centres (PTCs) in Bengaluru to directly block beds for the triaged patients on the system. This module was integrated within the system as the civic body aims to make physical triaging a prerequisite for COVID-19 patients seeking hospitalisation. Making physical triaging the primary source of patient evaluation over tele triaging will allow more rational and optimal allocation of critical care hospital beds, the Bengaluru civic body said.
“BBMP plans to move towards mandatory physical triaging as a prerequisite for all patients seeking hospital admissions. An optimal number of physical triage centres will be activated across all Assembly constituencies in the low to medium case regime and this would be quickly ramped up in case of any increase in cases,” the civic body note read. PTCs, which are equipped with basc health care facilities, evaluate a person diagnosed with COVID-19 and recommend home quarantine, treatment at COVID care facility or hospital depending on the severity of symptoms.
The 16 Physical Triage Centres across eight zones of Bengaluru can access the module to book beds in 26 hospitals across the city, the BBMP statement read. The civic body had used the portal for three days beginning June 1 in eight centres to supervise the functionality. They noted that 936 patients were triaged, of which 678 were referred for home isolation, 186 were sent to the COVID-19 care centres while 72 were hospitalised and allocated beds in High Dependency Units (HDU) and Intensive Care Units (ICU) wards.
Apart from Physical Triage Centres, the BBMP said that the ambulances deployed at the centres will double as Mobile Triaging Units (MTU) for those patients who cannot visit the PTC due to underlying health conditions.
On May 7, the BBMP announced that they will be decentralising the COVID-19 management through Decentralised Triage and Emergency Response (DETER) committees set up at ward-level. As part of this, the BBMP established over 50 Physical Triaging Centres in the city and plans to have one in all 198 wards. Until then, the triaging of COVID-19 patients was done by zonal war rooms after a tele-triage. Each PTC has two doctors and paramedics on each shift. They are equipped with the necessary medical infrastructure, including medicines and oxygen beds.