Government clears Rs 209 crore for 1,000 mohalla clinics

In a bid to give a boost to the primary healthcare infrastructure, the city government on Tuesday earmarked Rs 209 crore to set up 1,000 aam aadmi mohalla clinics in the city. The decision was taken during a Cabinet meet chaired by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Earlier, for this financial year, the government had made a budgetary provision for setting up 500 mohalla clinics.

A senior official said the clinics will attend to people living within one kilometre distance and the government hopes that people will not have to walk for more than 10-14 minutes to have access to primary health care. “The public works department (PWD) has been given the task of setting up clinics for providing quality public healthcare to people at their doorstep,” the official said.

According to government, in a paradigm shift, it is reorganising all the health facilities and a four tier structure is being created. “This will consist of mohalla clinics, poly clinics (multi-speciality clinic), multi-speciality hospitals (earlier called secondary level hospitals) and super speciality hospitals (earlier called tertiary level hospitals),” the official also said.

There will be a medical officer, pharmacist, auxiliary nursing midwife, lab technician and an outsourced security guard in every mohalla clinic. It is proposed to provide basic medical care based on standard treatment protocols in these clinics. The usual timing will be from 8 am to 2 pm and it is also proposed that some clinics may be run in evening shifts also.

The government said that every mohalla clinic will be linked to the poly clinics for logistical support and for referral of patients needing specialist care. On Monday, Mr Kejriwal had inaugurated the first “Aam Aadmi polyclinic” in east Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar. Mr Kejriwal had said that the government is going to revive around 150 dispensaries, presently housed in “dilapidated buildings,” over the next few months where specialist care would be provided to reduce dependence on hospitals.