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E-Governance

Computerisation of Corporation office top priority: Mayor

Friday, 03 December 2010 05:16 administrator
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The Hindu      03.12.2010

Computerisation of Corporation office top priority: Mayor

Staff Reporter
‘Steps initiated to check street dog menace in the city'
—Photo: K.C. Sowmish

First session: The first meeting of the third council of the Thrissur Corporation in progress on Thursday.

Thrissur: Computerisation of the various sections in the Corporation office will be top on the priority of the UDF council, Thrissur Corporation Mayor I. P. Paul has said.

Addressing the first meeting of the UDF-led Corporation council, he said that computerisation was necessary to ensure efficiency and transparency in the Corporation's functioning. “Most of the computers installed in 2000 by the then UDF council are not functioning. They are outdated. No steps were taken during the last five years to repair or update them,” he said.

The council entrusted the monitoring committee, led by Deputy Mayor Subi Babu, with the task of taking appropriate steps.

Steps had already been initiated to check the street dog menace in the city, the Mayor said.

The council asked the public works committee to inquire into the alleged shortcomings in the road repair works undertaken by the previous council.

Many UDF councillors alleged that the road works, including macadam tar topping of the Swaraj Round and the link roads, were done without proper plan or vision. Congress councillor Rajan Pallan said that the unscientific road repair works had left the city in a chaotic state.

“Even a brief spell of rain will flood the arterial Swaraj Round and all the low-lying roads. The tar topping had been done without removing the encroachments. There is no provision for the rainwater to flow into the drains. Crores of rupees had been wasted on unscientific city plan,” he alleged.

The council passed a resolution to repair six remaining major roads in the city during the second stage of the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project.

As many of the Corporation officials were not present while discussing issues related to their respective departments, the Mayor instructed the Secretary to ensure the presence of officials in the coming council meetings.

Opposition leader P.A. Purushothaman raised the issue of poor waste management in the city.

 

MCD mulls online reporting of dengue cases

Thursday, 02 December 2010 11:16 administrator
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Hindustan Times 02.12.2010

MCD mulls online reporting of dengue cases

In the backdrop of allegations that it was understating figures on dengue and chikungunya cases in Delhi, the MCD is now planning to introduce the facility of online reporting of such cases for all private and government hospitals in the city. “The expert committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) health department is contemplating developing a facility whereby all government and private hospitals will report dengue and chikungunya cases to the civic body online,” VK Monga, chairman of MCD’s health committee, said.

At present, hospitals send a hard copy via fax everyday of the number of dengue and chikungunya cases being treated by them.

“But many hospitals do not report to us as they feel it is a time-consuming and cumbersome process,” Monga said.

Due to this, the exact number of people affected by dengue or chikungunya is not known and steps to contain these diseases do not materialise well,” Monga said.

In the new system, all hospitals and other health service providers in the city will be provided a unique password to login and update the results easily instead of sending fax reports to the MCD.

Hospitals will have to update details which will include the name, age, sex, address and laboratory data of the patient to the MCD.

“It will reduce the hurdles before the hospitals, improve the system and bring in more transparency,” Monga added.

People will stop blaming the MCD that it is hiding the actual cases of dengue and chikungunya in the city,” he said.

Last Updated on Thursday, 02 December 2010 11:30
 

Soon, hospitals will be able to send dengue updates online

Thursday, 02 December 2010 10:30 administrator
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Indian Express           02.12.2010

Soon, hospitals will be able to send dengue updates online

Chinki Sinha Tags : Municipal Corporation of Delhi, cases of dengue and chikungunya Posted: Thu Dec 02 2010, 01:28 hrs

 New Delhi:  The government will next year set up a website where all registered hospitals in the city will report cases of dengue and chikungunya with demographic information and the kind of tests that were done. The move comes after private hospitals claimed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi was under-reporting the number of dengue cases and deaths.

The civic authority had clarified that it does not include numbers of positive cases done using the NS-1 tests as per the Central guidelines. Only cases that test positive via the IgM capture Elisa have been reported by the agencies. These tests are cheaper and are used by the government hospitals. As reported earlier, the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme is now thinking of approving the NS-1 Antigen as a confirmatory test for dengue. The cost had been a prohibitive factor in making NS-1 a confirmatory test for the government hospitals as the Elisa test kits cost just around Rs 400 each. The NS-1 kits help diagnose patients earlier, but are more expensive.

MCD officials said passwords will be provided to all registered hospitals in the Capital and they would be required to list the name, address and the kind of test and the platelet count of their patients. As of now, the hospitals send faxes of the same to the MCD.

“It has been decided in principle and very soon the expert committee will work out the modalities,” said MCD health official Dr V K Monga. Initially, the website will list dengue and chikungunya, but later more notifiable diseases will be included, officials said. Dr Monga said this will make Delhi the first state to implement such a move. A link to the website will be posted on the MCD portal. 

While the numbers of dengue and chikungunya cases have gone down considerably from more than 50 cases per day in October, it is feared that the tropical diseases will bounce back next season. The website will eliminate any controversy about the number of cases and also help the government and private hospitals keep a tab on the trend and be better prepared to handle the situation. This year, hospitals were full of fever patients and many had to turn away patients citing lack of beds and infrastructure. With such a centralised database, hospitals and government would know where they can refer patients in case they have a shortage of beds. It has not yet been decided whether the website will be open for the public.

Last Updated on Thursday, 02 December 2010 10:31
 
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