In five days since the State government designated Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) helpline 1912 as the go-to number to register complaints about difficulty in getting admission to hospitals, the helpline has got over 500 calls – around 100 calls per day.
Bescom Managing Director M.B. Rajesh Gowda told The Hindu that the helpline received 567 calls in five days until Thursday. “Of these, 106 were bed enquiries and beds were arranged in all 106 cases,” he added. As many as 461 were categorised as general enquiries. The number of bed enquiries has seen a gradual increase as the days progressed.
The government, through a July 4 circular, came out with a series of measures to counter the huge spike in COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru and an increasing number of cases where patients were denied treatment. Some of the measures included roping in 108 Arogya Kavacha services to shift patients across treatment facilities, and establishing a 24x7 call centre to redress grievances or denial of beds.
The circular had specified that 1912, which is the Bescom helpline for electricity related complaints, would be the toll-free number to deal with complaints of denial of admission in hospitals or COVID care centres for COVID-19 and SARI patients. Located in the Bescom corporate office, it is supervised by the Bescom MD.
Teams from multiple departments are manning the helpline - Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust - SAST (a separate body under the aegis of the Health and Family Welfare Department to implement Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Scheme aimed at BPL families), the Health and Family Welfare Department, Medical Education Department, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and Bescom.
Each of them have been given specific duties: the Health Department is to coordinate with government and private hospitals, the Medical Education Department will coordinate with facilities under it as well as in private medical colleges; the Trust coordinates with private hospitals regarding funding; BBMP for bed allotment after the grievance is addressed, and Bescom to coordinate using its nodal officers.
The call centre is expected to ascertain calls pertaining to denial of hospital admission, directing calls to relevant helplines such as 104, and passing on the complaint to the controlling department to deal with the nodal officers of the hospital, or with the ‘Arogya Mitra’ in case of SAST.
As reports of patients being denied admission continued to pour in, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, on Wednesday, had raised the centralised bed allocation system and helpline as answers to the problem and warned of action in case of delay in arrival of ambulance or denial of treatment in hospitals.
Monsoon queries
With monsoon setting in, the Bescom helpline is also getting an increasing number of rain-related calls. On the other hand, as COVID-19 cases increase, the number of calls related to this is also expected to go up.
“Monsoon-related calls can sometimes go up to 25,000. During the rain, there is call congestion as many people from the same area call when there is a power cut. But, we should be able to manage both,” said Mr. Gowda.