After the bed scam, Surya introduces changes to bring transparency in system

NewsBharati    11-May-2021
Total Views |
Bengaluru, May 11: In a bid to bring transparency in the allocation of beds in the city, Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya has introduced some major reforms in BBMP's Bed Booking allocation system.During the conference, Surya said after several discussions with the officers in charge of Covid-19 and with the help of the tech team, we had made 4 changes to fix the loopholes in the bed allocation system.
 
According to Surya, these major reforms will be implemented within 100 hours. This has come after, Surya unearthed the Bed Scam in the city.
 
Tejasvi _1  H x 
 

The 4 major changes-
 

Two-factor authenticated person-specific logins
 
Earlier, war rooms had generic logins with the common username used by multiple people that did not show which official from the war room booked the bed. However, now bookings will be tagged to individuals which will help in bringing transparency to the system.
 
 
 

Instant SMS alert
 
Now, patients will get an SMS with details of bed type and the hospital where beds are booked in their names. This will henceforth prevent beds being booked in patients' names without their knowledge. This will also be made visible on a public dashboard.

 
Reduction of bed reservation time
 
Noting that the bed reservation time is too long, Surya reduces bed reservation time from 10 hours to 4 hours. As per the new change, if a patient does not get himself admitted in 4 hours, the hospital bed will automatically be allotted to the next needy patient in queue.
 
 
 
 
Earlier if the system allowed a bed to a patient, he gets 10 hours to admit himself to the hospital. "We also felt that the auto-unblock time of a bed, where a bed will be automatically unbooked if a patient does not report for hospital admission for 10 hours, is too long. This is now reduced from 10 hours to 4 hours, meaning a hospital bed booking under your name is valid only for 4 hours with an option to re-block in exceptional circumstances,” he said.
 

Disabled ‘manual unblock’ option,
 
Surya has been removed the system of manually unblocking the hospital bed and its re-allotment. It was the biggest loophole used by miscreants to make proxy bookings. He said the corrupt officials used proxy names of people who were either discharged or are under home isolation, to book the bed in favor of someone else.
 
Apart from this, he also said “We also have proposed an Aadhar-enabled biometric or OTP-based admission and discharge system for patients to avoid fake admissions in hospitals. "
 
Earlier Surya unraveled a widespread corruption in the allotment of beds by the BBMP war room officials. He has also alleged that the war room officials at BBMP were falsely booking beds meant for the Covid-19 positive patients in exchange for money.
 
According to BJP MP, 4065 beds in Bengaluru were found to have been booked illegally. He added that BBMP officials were allegedly attempting to sell the beds in exchange for money. Following this, the Bengaluru police had arrested one opposition party supporter in connection with the case.
.