The health department of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has designed a new portal named Public Health Activities Surveillance and Tracking (PHAST) that integrates all COVID-19 related data at the Public Health Centre (PHC) level for the first time. “This will help plug gaps and empower PHCs to make data-based interventions,” said a senior civic official.
Crucial information, such as ICMR data on people who have tested positive for COVID-19, contact tracing data, ILI-SARI cases reported from private hospitals, international passengers coming into the city, are being reported to the central COVID-19 war room from where every evening it is disseminated to the zonal level. This not only took up a lot of resources, but also created situations where the data is effectively lost by the time it reaches PHCs.
“There was chaos at the PHCs. Now all these data files are directly entered on the PHAST portal, which can be accessed by PHCs, zonal level and the COVID-19 war room. The information is just a click away,” said the official.
For instance, it had recently come to light that Booth Level Officers (BLOs), who are provided with data of positive cases, are carrying out contact tracing and reporting to revenue officers while the already short-staffed PHCs are also doing contact tracing. Now BLOs will directly upload data on PHAST portal, avoiding duplication of work, said a senior health official.
“This decentralised approach will help PHCs be at the centre of the fight against COVID-19. They are at the forefront of testing, tracking and vaccination in the city, and need to be empowered further to handle the responsibility,” the civic official added.
Each PHC has one COVID-19 doctor, around five ASHA workers and other health workers. According to the official, there are plans to post another team of doctors and ASHA workers at every PHC.
