The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon introduce a real-time digital dashboard to display the availability of hospital beds across its network. The system will include information on general beds, ICU beds and NICU beds. Officials said the technology is being tested.
Once operational, it will allow users to check bed availability with a single click. The announcement was made during a review meeting held at the mayor’s office on World Health Day, April 7. MLA Ameet Satam attended the meeting. The focus of the meeting was how to improve public health services in the city.
Currently, people have to contact individual hospitals to check bed availability. The new system will let patients find available beds from real-time information and shift patients without delay.
The dashboard will be part of a centralised digital platform with live updates on beds across hospitals, maternity homes, and peripheral health centres managed by the civic body. This comes from lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, real-time information helped in patient movement and emergency care decisions.
The civic body is also planning upgrades across its hospital network. Renovation work and new construction projects are expected to add more than 2,000 beds in suburban hospitals. These facilities will offer general, specialist, and super-speciality services.
Furthermore, the civic body has also decided to use the Government of India’s GeM portal for procurement. This will apply to medical supplies, equipment, and medicines. In addition, the civic body plans to introduce PG medical courses. The initiative is part of a bigger plan to improve healthcare.