The West Bengal government has decided to upload the health parameters of COVID-19 patients under treatment in state-run and private hospitals on the health department’s website, so that family members are able to know their condition, a senior official said on Saturday. A mechanism is being prepared for the purpose and it would start within two weeks, he said and claimed that no other state in the country has such a system now.

The health department’s move followed allegations that family members of coronavirus infected people are not getting proper information on their health condition from hospitals. “A patient’s oxygen saturation level, pulse rate, blood sugar level, the functioning of different body parts whether or not a patient needs life support system. Every possible information will be provided on the website,” the official said.

Till Friday, West Bengal had 24,652 active COVID-19 cases. The state health department has started maintaining records of all corona patients admitted in both government and private hospitals and monitoring their condition via the Critical Covid Patient Management System (CCPMS) launched on August 1.

At least 96 government doctors are monitoring all Covid19 patients 24×7 under the CCPMS, the official said. “Since this team of doctors is already monitoring them, it’ll be easy for us to upload the health parameters of individual patients on the website. This would make it clear who is in a critical condition and who is not. There would be transparency,” he said.

There were allegations that family members were not informed of a patient’s death even after the last rites were completed by the authorities..