Mumbai : In a significant step to ease the ongoing bed shortage in civic hospitals, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is set to roll out a new Bed Management System across all its medical facilities.
The initiative is designed to ensure optimal use of hospital beds, addressing the persistent issue of overcrowding and patients being forced to share beds or receive treatment on the floor.
Under the new system, vacant beds in less-occupied departments such as ophthalmology, ENT, surgery, paediatrics, and neurology will be allocated to patients from high-demand wards like medicine and general.
A senior BMC official said the move would “maximize hospital resources and improve patient care,” adding that stable patients can be shifted to available beds in other departments, freeing space for critical cases and minimizing infection risks.
Civic-run hospitals — including Sion, KEM, Nair, and Cooper — collectively handle around 40,000 OPD patients and over 8,000 admissions daily. During seasonal surges, these numbers rise sharply, overwhelming facilities.
However, doctors have raised concerns about managing patients across multiple departments, noting the need for efficient coordination among medical staff.
With a network of four medical colleges, one dental college, 16 suburban hospitals, and five specialty hospitals — totaling around 15,000 beds — BMC serves over 30 lakh inpatients annually.
Officials believe the new bed management system will bring greater transparency, efficiency, and relief to Mumbai’s civic healthcare infrastructure.
