Govt prescribes booster shot, 1,000 mohalla clinics soon

New Delhi: Presenting the 2016-17 budget, deputy CM Manish Sisodia on Monday said the public health sector would continue to be the focus of developmental work undertaken by the AAP government in the coming financial year.
He proposed to spend Rs 5,259 crore on the area, of which Rs 3,200 crore would be under plan outlay, which is an increase of Rs 62 crore compared with last year's allocation.
Education continues to be the topmost priority for the government that has set aside Rs 4,645 crore (23% of the plan outlay) for this sector. The transport sector has been given Rs 3,943, which is 19% of the plan outlay.
In its maiden budget last year, Arvind Kejriwal government proposed to spend Rs 125 crore to set up 500 neighbourhood clinics by April 2016. However, one mohalla clinic and 20 polyclinics are operational at present.
On Monday, Sisodia reiterated his government's commitment to augment the health infrastructure in the city by creating three levels of services. This includes mohalla clinics where a doctor will provide primary care; polyclinics where free consultation will be provided for specialised health issues, including paediatric or gynaecology-related problems; and hospitals.
He said PWD was processing tenders to set up 1,000 mohalla clinics by the end of 2016. A pilot project for running these clinics through "empanelled doctors positioned in rented locations" would be launched soon, Sisodia added.
He proposed to establish 150 polyclinics, of which 20 had already been operationalised. The existing hospitals, he added, were being re-modelled and new institutions were being established. "These reforms would provide additional 10,000 beds in the state in the next two years," Sisodia said.
The unavailability of high-end diagnostic facilities has been a major problem across public hospitals. The government has proposed to open more labs with radio diagnostic facilities on a public-private partnership basis. An outlay of Rs 85 crore-for lab diagnostics (Rs 70 crore), tele-radiology (Rs 10 crore) and CT/MRI (Rs 5 crore)-has been set aside.
An amount of Rs 410 crore has been earmarked for procurement of medicines, machinery and equipment.