Barring GMCH, hospitals not updating 'bed availability status' on Chandigarh portal

Naina Mishra

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22

Introduced during the Covid-19 second wave following the Punjab and Haryana High Court directions, the online system of “bed availability status” at hospitals has stopped in Chandigarh.

On checking, it was found on the official website, chdcovid19.in/chdcovidbed19, that no government hospital other than the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32 (GMCH-32), has been uploading its bed availability status online.

It is pertinent to mention here that the count of active cases in the city has climbed up to 99 in the city, the highest after July. The cases have started to increase with an average 10 cases being reported daily.

The portal had come into existence during the second wave when the UT was reeling under shortage of beds and the public was hard pressed for information on bed availability in the hospitals for their kin suffering from serious Covid-19 infection.

According to the portal, a majority of hospitals stopped the practice of updating the bed availability in the month of July when the second wave subsided. However, some hospitals continued till August and September.

During a hearing on a plea on the Covid-19 management, senior advocate Anupam Gupta, while pointing at a Centre’s order dated April 29, had said there was nothing to show on implementation of the directions passed by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in letter and spirit by the Chandigarh Administration. As per the MHA order, among other things, a web portal be created by every state/UT to ensure access to information on availability of oxygen, drugs, vaccine and vacant beds in government/private hospitals and vaccination centers.

The portal was later launched following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. “As directed by the High Court, data on availability of hospital beds will be uploaded daily on the UT Administration website,” the then UT Adviser, Manoj Parida, had said.

When contacted, UT Health Secretary Yashpal Garg said, “I am going to access this tomorrow and talk to hospital authorities. Covid cases had reduced in between and this could have been the reason why some hospitals stopped sharing information on availability of beds.”

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