‘Mini war rooms’ in wards to allot beds to Covid-19 patients: Chahal

As the struggle to find beds for Covid-19 patients continues, to bring down the turnaround time, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal has decentralised the allotment of

As the struggle to find beds for Covid-19 patients continues, to bring down the turnaround time, civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal has decentralised the allotment of beds to Covid-19 patients. Chahal has directed all 24 ward offices to develop 24 mini war rooms, each with a dedicated staff of 10 officers, including medical staff. These mini war rooms are expected to be operational from Monday.

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From Monday, all those who call on 1916 will be redirected to the mini war rooms which will allot beds in their respective wards. Each ward’s mini war room will also have its own phone line, numbers for which are yet to be released. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the mini war rooms will allot beds and ventilators to patients in intensive care units (ICUs), as well as normal beds in Covid care centres and beds in quarantine facilities for high-risk contacts.

Additional municipal commissioner, Suresh Kakani said, “The whole idea of a mini war room to allot beds to citizens is to bring down the turnaround time. There have been complaints that it gets very late while allotting beds, and we are taking steps towards minimising the hardship. The ward-level war room can allot all types of beds, including ICU beds, oxygen beds and even ventilators depending on availability.”

BMC had earlier developed a centralised dashboard that could be accessed by civic officials who could guide citizens calling on disaster management helpline (1916). The dashboard is updated every 30 minutes. However, citizens say finding beds continues to be difficult.

As per the new plan, every ward’s mini war room will have live data from the centralised dashboard. Based on this, the ward office will allocate beds to citizens. A BMC official said, “Earlier, ward offices were coordinating with the central team as they were allotting the beds. However, now the filter of central team will not be there.”

Not being able to find beds for Covid-19 patients has been a consistent problem. Andheri-resident Amruta Das, who lost her uncle to Covid-19, said, “My uncle tested positive on May 29 and he had difficulty breathing due to which he was put on oxygen, owing to which he required ventilator. However, for over 24 hours we had to wait for the ventilator to be allocated. My uncle was taken to three hospitals where we were told ventilators were available, but on reaching, we were informed they weren’t available. My uncle passed away on the evening of May 30 at Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi due to not getting the required treatment.”

Ujwal Shah, a resident of Malad, said, “Our neighbour was tested positive on May 28 and was hospitalised the same day at a private hospital. However, his condition deteriorated on May 29 after which we were told that he needs a bed in ICU. But all beds in the particular hospital were full and we were asked to shift the patient immediately. However, for almost 24 hours, we couldnot find a bed for the patient. The doctors put him on oxygen in the general ward itself, but his life could not be saved. We understand that the number of patients are too much to handle, but we cannot have citizens left to die.”

As of May 28, BMC has over 82,000 beds for Covid-19 patients. This number includes beds for quarantined high-risk contacts of Covid-positive people. Around 70,000 of the 82,000 beds are for asymptomatic positive patients, mild cases and positive cases. Of the remainder, 373 are beds with ventilators and 645 are ICU beds.