Chief minister Hemant Soren launched a one-stop online portal and a mobile application for booking beds across private and government hospitals on Friday, a move that could save patient families the trauma for having to desperately search for medical help at a time when Covid cases are spiralling.
Titled Amritvahini (www.amritvahini.in), the website and its mobile interface were rolled out in the afternoon by Hemant from his residence in the presence of health minister Banna Gupta and other senior officials. A WhatsApp number (8595524447) was also released for residents to consult medical experts.
Hemant said the initiative was in continuation of government efforts to combat the menace of Covid-19 in the state and boost people’s confidence about receiving timely medical attention.
“While on the one hand we are working round- the-clock to increase our bed strength both at government and private hospitals, it is equally important that people get access to beds and other medical care on time. Therefore, we have now devised a one-stop online system that can be accessed via phone or computer/tablet, to check availability of beds across the state and book them as per need,” he said.
A bed that has been booked will be kept on hold for two hours. In case the patient does not arrive, it will then be allotted to another patient in need.
Till the time of filing this report, the website was yet operationalise the facility to book beds. However, it had other crucial information such as details of hospital beds across the state. Among the other services that will be available on the site are details on medical kits for Covid patients in home isolation, paid isolation facilities, ambulance on call, online consultation with doctors, etc.
Ranchi district administration had in the in the second week of April rolled out an online dashboard (https://Ranchi.nic.in) to provide real-time information on availability of hospital beds. But it was a failure owing to various reasons, from unresponsive helplines to private hospitals' reluctance to share details of available facilities.
Ultimately, the people of Ranchi, which has been clocking around 1000 cases daily for a month now, were left to fend for themselves.
Hemant conceded that the dashboard wasn't up to the mark, but promised to sort out the glitches. "The rate with which this virus is infecting people is so high that hospitals are turning full in no time. ...from time to time, we are getting reports of people dying. It shouldn’t happen, but we are working hard to set things right,” he said.
