Will a new digital system for better healthcare eliminate the need for more hospitals in the future? It could happen
Representational image. Pic/iStock
I am always in awe at the BMC’s relentless pursuit of excellence. This isn’t immediately obvious if one looks at the way it manages civic infrastructure, education, water supply, roads, waste management, administrative tasks, or basic governance, among other things, but what I refer to is its unshaken belief that technology can bring change. I can picture its officers all hunched over their machines, constantly scouring the internet for news on technological developments that can be adopted to improve everyone’s life in Bombay. It is that spirit of innovation that prompted a former chief minister — I can’t recall which one because there were similar promises made by his predecessors and successors — to declare that this city would turn into Shanghai or Singapore within a few years.
That belief is glaringly obvious whenever one looks at intersections where technology and the BMC meet. Take its official website, for example, which is a cutting-edge shining star on the World Wide Web, offering the kind of user experience all government organisations around the world should try and replicate. It may take you a day or two, but you will eventually find what you’re looking for.
The reason I bring up technology this time is a recent announcement that may or may not have come to your attention. Apparently, while residents of Bombay have been occupied with trying to walk the streets without tripping, the BMC has been hard at work transforming healthcare services. Naturally, like anyone who has ever lived in this city, my first question was whether these services needed to be transformed at all. Who amongst us has walked into a BMC hospital or dispensary and not applauded? How can these efficient models get any better?
Putting aside my doubts though, I assumed the plan had something to do with more doctors, more nurses, better equipment, or more beds for emergencies. It seemed like a logical thing to focus on. What it turned out to be, however, was something called the HMIS-2 system. It stands for Hospital Management Information System in case you’re wondering which politician it has been named after. The aim is to ‘modernise public health services, improve efficiency, and accelerate service delivery.’ By the time you read this, it is supposed to be up and running as seamlessly as everything built by the BMC usually tends to do.
I tried looking up information on HMIS-1, assuming there must have been an earlier iteration of this plan, but little showed up online. Perhaps it was rolled out without any publicity, which would be in keeping with how our bureaucrats and ministers traditionally work. Either way, I was pleased to see that version 2 explained a little more.
For a start, each patient will be assigned a unique identification number. This unique identification number will be different from the other unique identification numbers that have been given to us over the years, from our birth certificates and passports to Aadhar cards and other numbers that will inevitably be rolled out in the near future. Patients will be able to use this new unique identification number for referrals from dispensaries to hospitals and vice versa. It will also help them track their treatment records on mobile devices, while allowing doctors to maintain digital records, consultations, and information about the distribution of medicine. If I understand this correctly, the next time something like a pandemic hits us, we may not have enough oxygen tanks, but at least every hospital will be able to tell us how many tanks it is falling short of.
According to reports presumably based on press releases, HMIS-2 will also generate patient service reports, conduct statistical analyses, and support policy decision-making. If you can explain exactly what these things entail, the PR agency isn’t doing its job very well. I, for one, believe that the words ‘support policy decision-making’ can be applied to any app, website, department, or committee that has ties to any government or bureaucracy.
A little more digging revealed that this life-changing system will cost taxpayers approximately Rs 350 crore, in exchange for which the company that won the tender will handle supply, installation, testing, commissioning, operations, and maintenance for a specified period. That figure may seem like a drop in the ocean given the BMC’s annual budget, but I would love to see how many such drops exist. It sometimes feels as if the BMC has been promising me a better life for as long as I can remember. It has just never arrived.
When he isn’t ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He tweets @lindsaypereira
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