The Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) in Bengaluru on Sunday launched a 'searchmybed' portal to give away the latest updates on bed status to COVID-19 patients.
Through the portal, the public can view the bed status in various private hospitals available to treat COVID-19 patients.
The portal, which is quite similar to Bengaluru civic body BBMP's bed status portal, is updated in real-time, where the public can contact hospitals to book the beds.
According to PHANA, the web portal displays the bed status along with the contact numbers of various private hospitals.
"As of now, 136 hospitals in the city have registered, and 1,699 beds private beds have been displayed in the portal, and only three are vacant as of now (Sunday). We are expected to reach 10,000 beds after the addition of more hospitals. Among them, at least 1,000 beds will be an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and we would add 150 to 200 ventilators," said Dr Prasanna HM, the president of PHANA as reported by The Indian Express.
Dr Rajashekar, Secretary of PHANA, further added that in the coming days, more and more hospitals will be enrolled, and the hospitals need to update the data periodically as and when patients discharges happen. He also said that the hospitals will be encouraged to display the data in real-time on the portal.
Health and Family Welfare Minister K. Sudhakar inaugurated the portal virtually and said that the new system would be extended to other districts in the State soon.
The citizens can now check data on beds through the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) portal, the Central Hospital Bed Management System, and the private hospital Portal (https://searchmybed.com).
According to the latest official data, the total COVID-19 death toll in Karnataka on Sunday increased to 18,776 as 490 more deaths in the last few days were reported by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.
Out of the 47,930 fresh infections in the state, 20,897 were from Bengaluru Urban alone. Bengaluru also reported 281 fatalities, which is the highest among all 30 districts in Karnataka.