1st in Maha, Covid portal ensures hosp beds for needy

Chandrapur: Covid patients and their relatives running from one hospital to another in search of beds breathed a sigh of relief, thanks to the introduction of Chandrapur Covid-19 patient management portal, first of its kind of centralised facility in the state.
With exponential rise in the number of Covid patients during the second wave, there was quite a chaos among patients over securing hospital beds. Hoping for discharge of those who recover, patients on oxygen support were seen waiting in ambulances at hospitals to land a bed.
Sensing seriousness of the situation, collector Ajay Gulhane took control of hospital bed allocation in Chandrapur city and started patient management portal on Monday.
There are total 1,316 beds in 28 government and private hospitals under the portal. A patient needs to be taken to designated Covid Care Centre (CCC) or Covid Hospital for registration.
“Medics at the CCC or Covid Hospital would register the patient on portal after testing their oxygen level and other vital parameters. The registered patients will be held in three separate waiting lists — oxygen, ICU and ventilator. Depending upon health condition of the patients, beds would be allocated through the centralised allocation process,” said Gulhane.
The collector explained that Aadhaar number, mobile number, oxygen level of the patient and RT-PCR test report are mandatory for registration on the portal.
“We frantically looked for a bed for my sister while her oxygen level deteriorated with every passing hour. Every hospital we went denied admission claiming no bed vacancy and we had to keep her at home on oxygen support for two days with the help of an NGO. However, my sister got ICU bed within hours of launching of the portal,” said TM Shedmake, one of the beneficiaries.
Hospitals are required to immediately inform about bed vacancy to all CCCs and control room. The control room would in turn intimate the allotment of bed to patients so that they could directly go to the hospital.
“We have directed all hospitals to admit patients as per the bed allocation made through the waiting list on the portal. The hospitals are forbidden to admit any patient directly without registering them on the portal. Those violating the process will lose their license to treat Covid patient,” warned Gulhane.
Nodal officer Dr Kishor Bhattacharya said total 298 patients have been registered on the portal till Wednesday evening. Of these, 142 were provided with oxygen, ICU or ventilator beds. “There were 50 patients who declined to avail the beds despite allocation citing reasons like hospitalization in other cities or recovery during the waiting period. There are still 104 patients on the waiting list, but it is possible that some of them might have succumbed or have secured beds in Nagpur or Mancherial in neighbouring Telangana or other cities,” he said.
In Nagpur, following directives of Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, district collectorate and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) too have decided to start centralised control room which will monitor and allocate beds at all Covid Care Centres (CCCs) and Dedicated Covid Health Care Centres (DCHCs) in the district.
From Tuesday itself, hospitals in Nagpur district have been asked to refrain from admitting patients directly. Those seeking admission will have to contact CCR landline number 0712-2567021 or on WhatsApp (7770011537, 7770011472) with health details of the patient. Within half an hour, the CCR will take a call on whether the patient can undergo treatment at home or is to be allotted a hospital bed.