Report pending deaths: BMC’s final warning to all hospitals

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday issued a final warning to all municipal and private hospitals to report pending Covid-19 deaths to the civic

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday issued a final warning to all municipal and private hospitals to report pending Covid-19 deaths to the civic body before 5pm on June 29, or face action.

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This is the second such warning issued to hospitals, after the Maharashtra government added 862 Covid-19 deaths to Mumbai’s cumulative toll on June 16, after reconciling figures that were received late from hospitals. The first such warning was issued on June 18.

The latest order was given by municipal commissioner IS Chahal during a meeting with superintendents of major hospitals and municipal doctors on Friday. During the discussion, it was reported that in some cases, private hospitals did not inform BMC about deaths within 48 hours.

Despite repeated opportunities, if hospitals fail to report deaths within 48 hours henceforth, strict action will be taken, Chahal said during the video conference.

The civic body had also announced that reconciling figures of Covid-19 deaths would be a recurring process over the next month until all data was cleaned up.

Chahal had told Hindustan Times last week that BMC would not take any action against hospitals for reporting Covid-19 deaths late. Subsequently, an official clarification issued by BMC attributed the delay to shortage of staff and limitations in means of communication.

BMC had also clarified that while the 862 deaths had occurred in March and April, 750 of them were reported to BMC on June 12.

On June 8, BMC made it mandatory for all hospitals to report Covid deaths within 48 hours.