Ego clash puts BMC’s ambitious health management info system in limbo

The Health Management Information System (HMIS), one of the poster projects of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) introduced in the 2018-19 budget, a pet project of the municipal commissioner, Ajoy Mehta, is currently in limbo. Its implementation has been delayed, thanks to ego clashes between the doctors and BMC’s information technology department (IT) officials, according to civic sources. The project, which was supposed to be rolled out in 201819, continues to languish in the primary testing phase.

The project, on implementation, will issue health cards to patients of civic hospitals across Mumbai. These cards will have barcodes with information on the patient’s personal details, health history and real-time health records. “Instead of physical copies, these cards will enable patients to carry X-rays, medical reports, etc in digital format. This will reduce the paper transactions and doctors will be able to read the patient's entire medical history, through a card,” said a civic official from the health department of the BMC.

But the project has run into many hurdles, despite being promoted by Mehta himself.

“The doctors are obstinate about accepting the change. They are demanding data entry operators. This is one of the major reasons for the delay,” said an IT official from the BMC. The official also alleged doctors' over-interference, by giving multiple requirements each time. “Doctors are changing their requirements every time. This has caused a delay at the development and implementation level,” the official said.

However, a doctor involved in the process told The Free Press Journal that the changes were essential, as there are multiple module entries (34 modules - blood bank, medicine, etc) required. “Civic hospitals deal with all kinds of patients. Our aim is to make systematic arrangements to avoid confusion about the patient’s medical records,” the doctor said.

As for data entry operators the doctor said, "We are not stenographers to do this work. Time should be given for regularisation of the change. Our productivity will come down if we get involved in data entry, instead of treating patients. Therefore, we are demanding a data operator in the initial stages,” he said.

But the claims of both, the IT official and the doctor were rejected the Samajwadi Party corporator Rais Shaikh, who on Friday toured hospitals across Mumbai to check the implementation of the project.

“Not one single data entry record has yet been made. The hardware infrastructure has changed multiple times and due to technical difficulties, the software is mostly offline,” he informed.