The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has helped 82,973 patients with hospital beds in the last four months since the civic body has set up war rooms in all the 24 wards of the city.
BMC had set these war rooms at the ward level to tackle problems like bed shortage and to monitor the conditions of infected patients. Civic officials attributed that these war rooms helped in decentralisation of bed distribution which led to faster allotment of beds.
"During the initial days of the pandemic outbreak, the beds were distributed centrally. But now each ward has the authority of providing beds to patients, which has eased the pressure on civic hospitals" said a civic health official. He also mentioned, Mumbaikars mainly prefer BMC hospitals because private hospitals charge exorbitantly while government hospitals don't have proper infrastructure.
In each war room, there are approximately eight to ten employees (including doctors) working in three shifts. The war room also records the daily record of patients and update them in an orderly manner.