COVID-19: Private hospitals to launch bed availability portal

It will enable citizens to monitor availability of beds in real time

The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (PHANA) is set to roll out its database that will allow citizens to monitor availability of beds in real-time. While there is a spreadsheet that gives updated information on bed available in the government quota, there is no such centralised database for the private sector, a gap that the city’s civic body and the State government have been trying to plug. This opacity in bed availability in private hospitals is one of the reasons for the presence of touts who are guaranteeing hospitalisation to desperate families at exorbitant costs. According to officials, the lack of information is adding to the panic. Once PHANA’s portal becomes live, bed availability in the private sector will be in the public domain, and the system will be streamlined, said Dr. H.M. Prasanna, president, PHANA. “The situation is so bad that, as president of the Association, I myself don’t know where beds are available. So we have brought most of the private hospitals on board for the portal, something the Association wanted to do last year, but never could,” he said.