As the dearth of beds for "needy" Covid patients and other issues are coming to the fore, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to appoint nodal officers stating it will help in "accurate" and even more proactive functioning of the 24 ward level war rooms and jumbo field hospitals respectively.
To ensure Covid-19 patients are allotted hospital beds promptly, especially at night, the nodal officers will function in two shifts from 3 pm to 11 pm and 11 pm to 7 am.
All bed allotments between 11 pm and 7 am will be predominantly done in jumbo field hospitals only and fasttrack bed allotment will be ensured throughout the night by these nodal officers at ward war rooms and jumbo field hospitals respectively, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Monday.
Covid-19 patients who call up the ward war room during the second shift will be allotted beds mostly at jumbo Covid facilities and the nodal officers, who will be in touch with the seven jumbo facilities in Mumbai, will fast-track the process. After a bed at a jumbo facility is reserved for a patient, they will be provided with one only after their medical condition and requirement are assessed.
Meanwhile, all laboratories have been instructed to ensure Covid-19 test results are ready within 24 hours. The labs have been instructed to prioritise swabs of symptomatic patients while processing the Covid-19 tests collected at homes.
Moreover, labs have been asked to submit reports of patients who were tested the previous day by 6 am every day (within 24 hours of their swab collection), to ensure such patients get beds by 8 am the same day. Presently, positive reports of patients who are tested in the first half of the day are submitted to BMC by midnight the same day.
Chahal had already empowered assistant commissioners to take decisions at the ward level and stressed activation of war rooms for better management of available beds, ICU beds, ventilators among others, as per the order.
Meanwhile, 150 beds at Nehru Science Centre in Worli and another 225 in Poddar Hospital, also at Worli, were handed over to the civic body by state Tourism and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Monday. Besides this, the capacity of the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) Covid Center has also increased to 800 beds from 500 now. Oxygen supply facility to 70 per cent of the beds.
