BENGALURU : Only five ICU beds were booked directly for patients through the COVID+ Hospital Bed Management System (CHBMS) portal last week. “The average beds blocked has been 1.19,” showed the portal last week. This is despite the demand for beds, especially the ones with oxygen, being very high.
Three beds were booked directly on May 8, and 12 on May 7. Only 20 high-dependency units (HDU) beds and three ICU with ventilator beds were booked on May 9. Also, the portal shows that no ICU and oxygen beds are available. Due to rising demand, the government has set a two-day deadline for the BBMP to create 5,000 beds in the city, of which, at least 30 per cent should have an oxygen line.
From May 7-10, in four days, 3,349 beds have been booked through the portal. Of this 2,222 are general, 1,043 are HDU, 53 ICU and 31 ICU with ventilators. An official handling the bed allocation system said that many are waiting because most of the beds have been filled up under step up cases where patients in general beds or other beds were moved to these as they became critical.
The official also doubted that there could be cases where some with influence or by paying a high price, had moved to ICU or HDC beds. So, to avoid any doubts, the hospitals are being asked to share reports of step-up facilities also.
This doubt has emerged now as most of the time, when the portal opens and cases are referred, hospitals decline stating there is an in-house emergency. “An emergency situation would arise in 5-10% cases and not for 40-50% cases. But hospitals are now citing in-house emergencies most of the times and the officials deployed are not updating the portal or the head office on real-time basis. This is why oxygen beds outside hospitals has to be set up,” the official noted. The help desk nodal officers have been instructed to do independent reality checks also and give information.