Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s health website creates confusion

Private hospitals of the city were told last week by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to report on a daily basis how many patients have been admitted with what disease. However, only a few have responded.  

Around a week ago the civic body conducted a meeting with the doctors of private hospitals of the city on its plan to gather health reports from all hospitals.

So far health reports have come from four AMC-run hospitals namely - LG Hospital, Shardaben Hospital, VS Hospital and Chepi Rog (Infectious Disease) Hospital of Jamalpur and 28 private hospitals.

To have a proper picture of the city’s health, 70 private hospitals have to send their reports. “We have asked them to send their database. But we have received reports from only 28 hospitals. We have sent a notice to the others asking them to start providing the data latest from August 12. They can even e-mail or fax us the data. Also, they have to attend a meeting organised by AMC on Friday,” said the medical officer of health, Dr SP Kulkarni.

Many doctors who were contacted said they had difficulty using the website provided by the civic officials. They said the website where data has to be uploaded is confusing. “I tried to upload the report on the website provided, but it just doesn’t open. But I didn’t complain to AMC officials as we can also submit the data through hard copy by filling up a form and giving it to AMC officials who come to our hospital every evening to collect data. But since the last two days, the officials haven’t come with forms,” Dr Iqbal Shaikh of Raj Hospital said.

Similarly, another doctor of Sabarmati area, requesting anonymity said, “The website didn’t open at all initially and later I didn’t know where to click on the website to upload the data. I do not know whether it was a network problem or the website’s problem.”