As many as 1,200 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) and link workers in the city may soon be given tablets which they will use to collate data of various surveys. This is a part of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) initiative to improve public health infrastructure and capabilities in its Urban Primary Healthcare Centres (UPHC).

This was announced during the launch of the UPHC portal and an app to track the hospital bed management systems at the BBMP head office on Thursday.

BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad said the civic body, in collaboration with the United Way of Bengaluru and its healthcare technology experts, has taken up the initiative. Under the first phase, the 141 UPHCs in the city will start collecting data about patients visiting the centres and their health condition.

“This initiative empowers ASHAs, ANMs and link workers in UPHCs to perform various surveys using efficient mobile applications that include immunizations, larvae, dengue, vulnerability assessments etc,” he said.

Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan, who launched the initiatives said the BBMP will set up 57 PHCs in outskirts of the city, as well as improve the existing facilities in the 141 UPHCs. With the portal, information related to healthcare services that was earlier in silos would now be integrated.

“The UPHC portal will help improve healthcare services, as the GPS-enabled app will integrate analytics. This will also help the BBMP make informed policy decisions about communicable and non-communicable diseases, vulnerable populations and health needs in each of the 198 wards,” he said.

Private hospitals and laboratories in the city were mandated under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act to regularly update data on infectious, non-infectious and communicable diseases on the UPHC portal as well.

The COVID-19 hospital bed management system app will capture real-time data. The BBMP already has a dashboard on bed availability.