MADURAI

Madurai district administration has created a makeshift portal to enable all hospitals admitting COVID-19 patients to update their discharges and the number of vacant beds.

Collector T.G. Vinay on Monday said the portal was updated twice a day – at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. – to know real-time bed vacancies. A source from the district administration said the portal was created as private hospitals admitting COVID-19 patients were delaying the process of updating the number of discharges, deaths and bed vacancies.

Currently, there are 10 private hospitals in the district treating COVID-19 patients – Apollo Hospital, Bharathi Hospital, Devadoss Multispeciality Hospital, Guru Multispeciality Hospital, Lakshmana Multispeciality Hospital, Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre, Rahavendhar Hospital, Saravana Hospital, Vadamalayan Hospital and Velammal Medical College Hospital and Research Institute.

“The number of discharges had been significantly higher on July 11 and 12 than in the first week of the month because we have been updating the backlog from private hospitals. The hospitals are taking their time to update data. The Collector had called a meeting last week and sought strict adherence to updation of the portal,” the source said.

The source said although 787 discharges were recorded on July 12 and 553 on July 11 in the State Health Bulletin, it was not exactly indicative of the number of discharges till date.

The Collector said they were focussing on data related to admissions since July 6. “In the next three days, the discharge figures would be updated with the current numbers,” he said.

Dr. Vinay added that since the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) guidelines no longer specified exit swab tests at the time of discharge, asymptomatic cases were usually asked to go back home after 10 days of treatment. Those in other treatment facilities, including COVID-19 care centres and Government Rajaji Hospital’s COVID-19 speciality hospital who had symptoms, would be discharged after their illness saturated, he said.

“Those with symptoms will definitely be monitored for 10 days,” he said.