Soon, portal for state-run hosps to issue birth & death certificates

kolkata: State government is all set to introduce a dedicated portal enabling state-run hospitals to issue birth and death certificates to the patients' family members, giving a relief from standing in the queue for hours at the civic bodies or Panchayat offices in the villages.

If everything goes as per plan, the service may be introduced in April. According to sources, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may announce the name of the state government's portal that will contain the data relating to the birth and death of people.

The data collected by the state Health department regarding the birth and death of patients would eventually be uploaded on the centralised data, which would be prepared by the state.

All the medical colleges, hospitals and also maternity clinics across the state will issue certificates to the patients' relatives.

Once the new service is launched, the family members of the newborns will be able to get the birth certificates from the hospitals or maternity clinics while release from the hospitals.

There will be a dedicated portal where the family members of the patients can apply if there are any mistakes on their certificates.

If someone wants to change their names or address, he or she will be able to apply through online portal.

If they get a clearance from the authorities, the rectified certificates can be downloaded through the portal. The centralised portal will give relief to the people who have to stand in the queue at various municipalities and corporations

It was learnt from the sources that a trail run is being conducted by the state Health department and it is on the final stage. The portal will be made operational from April this year.

After the portal is launched, the names of the dead people will get automatically deleted from the Swasthya Sathi and Khadhya Sathi lists.

It may be mentioned here that the Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi took a stock of the portal that is underway.

He also directed the health officials to complete the work fast so that the portal can be launched within stipulated time.

The project has been run on experimental basis in Birbhum and Howrah. All the hospitals, medical colleges and maternity homes will be included into the system.

It may be mentioned here that in 2019, seven medical colleges in the city started the service of issuing the certificates taking off the burden of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC).

After the government hospitals, this service will be introduced in private hospitals as well.