‘Mohalla clinics 500-600 steps away from one’s house… easiest way to get medicines’

“Mohalla clinics are located 500-600 steps away from their houses and is the easiest way for them to get their medicines,” he said.

Delhi has 546 mohalla clinics, among which, 175 are run from rented accommodations, as per data available on the Directorate General Health Services website, last updated in March 2022.

The first mohalla clinic was opened at Peeragarhi in 2015 by then Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and then Health Minister Satyendra Jain.

In 2018, AAP had alleged it was not being provided land by the Delhi Development Authority – the city’s largest land owning agency, which comes under the Union government – to construct mohalla clinics. A year later, construction of a mohalla clinic at Karol Bagh was stopped by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi citing lack of necessary approvals.

one of the clinics that is still operating at Sangam Vihar (Express/Devansh Mittal)

Following this, facing significant challenges in finding space for new clinics, then AAP government decided to set up mohalla clinics in rented accommodations to meet its goal of setting up 1,000 such centres by the end of 2019. In October 2019, the Delhi State Health Mission invited expressions of interest from people who wanted to lease out their ground floor premises for mohalla clinics. The rent was capped at Rs 30,000 per month.

In Sangam Vihar, which falls under Deoli Assembly constituency, while eight mohalla clinics are run from rented accommodations, only three are Delhi government-run dispensaries. The area is mostly home to people from the lower and middle income groups, staying in unauthorised colonies.

As two minor girls leave a mohalla clinic at Sangam Vihar on Saturday noon with cough syrups in hand, one of them, Premlata, said, “I come here whenever I fall sick and get medicines free of cost just by showing the Aadhaar card.”

They are two among the 100-120 patients who visit the clinic every day, except Sunday when it is closed. Mohammad Mukhtar (49) has come to the clinic along with his 10-year-old daughter Neha Parveen. A tailor, Mukhtar is diabetic, which has made him partially blind. While he is undergoing tests at AIIMS, he gets his medicines from this clinic only.

“I have been coming here for the last three years… at least once every month,” he said. Parveen, meanwhile, has come for a check-up after she experienced chest pain after being hurt by a cow.

Chandralata Chauhan, another patient, is unaware that the clinic might shut down soon. “This is nearby, while the hospital is far away. Not all can stand in queue at hospitals, right? I get nauseous when I sit in a car, how will I go to the hospital?” asked the 42-year-old homemaker, who does some tailoring after her husband was recently fired from his job.

Shakeel (57) is suffering from back pain and cold. “I don’t go anywhere else for treatment. Whenever I get ill, I come here only. Medicine from elsewhere doesn’t suit me, I get medicines from here only,” he said.

A doctor posted at one of the mohalla clinics said, “Many of my patients are either too old and live alone or cannot go on their own to a big hospital. It will be impossible for them to stand in queue in the OPD to get treatment. Many of them do not have enough money to travel far as well.”

She added, “The health minister’s remark has worried the staff and doctors working at mohalla clinics, making us wonder about our future.”

Maintaining that these clinics existed only on paper and were generating rent expenses, Singh had said on Thursday, “Mohalla clinics are a fraud. More than 250 such clinics will be shut down as they don’t work. We will work on our government land. An order has been passed to shut down such clinics to curb corruption.”

He had added one mohalla clinic in each district will be converted into a Jan Arogya Mandir within 30 days. Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said, “While clinics running from rented accommodations will be shut, the work being done by doctors and staff in these clinics will be evaluated and a decision taken on their future.”

“Mohalla clinics are a fraud… We want to give the people of Delhi good health services, which have been lacking,” he added.

However, the staff at mohalla clinics disagree. “We have all documents, everything is digitised, we have a software that maintains data of patients visiting, tests conducted, and medicines provided to patients…,” said a doctor working at one of the mohalla clinics functioning from a rented accommodation in Sangam Vihar. “Where will these patients go if we shut these clinics? Many of them will stop taking medicines,” the doctor added.

A doctor from another mohalla clinic at Sangam Vihar said the clinic has had a strong and visible impact on local residents. “Mohalla clinics can be found in every corner… there are no long queues outside these clinics unlike government hospitals and people are treated for all kinds of ailments.”

“Even those who are illiterate know that (AAP chief Arvind) Kejriwal had started this scheme. “If mohalla clinics are shut, people would say ‘Kejriwal started this facility but BJP shut it down’),” the doctor added.

Worried about his own future, the doctor said he would have to start his own clinic. He, however, is concerned about his staffers “who have nowhere to go”.