BENGALURU : Amid the spiralling COVID-19 cases in the city, the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Association (PHANA) on Sunday launched a web portal searchmybed to provide real-time status on the availability of beds in private hospitals.
The portal will also show the status of regular, ICU and oxygen beds.PHNA president Dr Prasanna HM said that it was heartbreaking to see people running around in search of hospital beds.
"People should get oxygen, beds and medicines. We should not get the dubious distinction of not giving adequate treatment to people. There is a huge demand for ICU beds and only one out of 50 people are getting it. It is a shame on our part. This portal is transparent. Using it, patients and NGOs can learn the status of beds as soon as they fall vacant," Dr Prasanna said.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that KPME and SAST portals weren't displaying the correct status of beds and hence they asked PHANA to come up with a solution. He said that there is a need to increase ICU beds by 300-500 and oxygen beds by 2,000.
Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya said that the portal should not be static and should be regularly updated.
Presently, in private quote, there are 613 regular beds, 763 oxygen beds, 152 ICU beds, and 90 ICU beds with a ventilator. Health and Medical Education Minister Sudhakar urged PHANA to extend the portal to all districts once it stabilises and keep it functional even after the pandemic.