Over 65 per cent of the burden on emergency medical services will soon be eased with the launch of Mission Arogya, a project to computerise ICU beds at all the government and private hospitals in the city.
Speaking on the sidelines of a two-day conference on ‘Better Health Access: The tough road ahead’, N Prabhu Dev, chairman, Karnataka Health System Commission, said Mission Argoya was aimed at creating a database of all the available emergency facilities in the city.
The pilot project is slated to be launched in three months and the project will subsequently be rolled out in the entire state.
“We will launch a special helpline that will provide instant information about the availability of beds in the nearest hospital, where the patient can be taken into an ICU,” he said.
In order to procure technological expertise and framework, the commission is in talks with IT bigwigs who will provide back-end support. “We want to create a better hospital management system to avoid deaths and delays during critical treatment,” Dev told Express. He pointed out that the greatest hurdle in providing emergency care was the shortage of ICU beds.
“Many people lose their lives because there aren’t enough ICU beds in the city, especially for the trauma cases. Most of the time, when a patient is in urgent need of treatment, there is no bed available in a nearby hospital. He loses time while being taken to another hospital,” Dev said.
A registry will be prepared as part of Mission Arogya which will also have information on ICUs for specialty treatment in fields like cardiac problems, neurological problems and pediatrics.
It will also have a built-in registry on blood available in blood banks. Apart from this, Mission Arogya will divert and track 108 ambulances in an effective manner.
“People can receive information through text messages as to how they can procure timely help at any time of need,” Dev said.