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Journalism of Courage
The promise of quality education and healthcare in the public sector won AAP two consecutive terms in Delhi. With the party set to win Punjab based on its ‘Delhi Model’, The Indian Express takes a look at the healthcare policies of the party and what has changed in Delhi since 2015 when the party first came to power.
From its flagship mohalla clinics to free tests and surgeries at private sector facilities, the Delhi government has invested heavily in the healthcare sector. The healthcare budget increased from an outlay of Rs 2,164 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 9,934 crore in 2021-22, which accounted for 14% of the total outlay for the year. Nationally, healthcare accounts for less than 2% of the GDP.
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Focus on primary and tertiary healthcare
AAP had made two key healthcare promises for the 2015 elections – open 900 new primary health centres and double the bed strength in Delhi government hospitals by adding 10,000 beds. The government, in its first term itself, came up with the innovative concept of mohalla clinics or neighbourhood clinics, to offer consultation, medicines, and over 200 lab tests for free.
The government planned to set up 1,000 mohalla clinics in the city, so that patients could access healthcare within a 1-km radius of their homes and did not need to queue up in bigger hospitals.
From making clinics on curbside, under flyovers, and even in shipping containers, the government has so far opened 500 such clinics where the doctors are engaged on pay-per-patient basis. The government has, however, so far missed several deadlines for reaching its goal of a thousand clinics, due to problems with land allocation etc.
The clinics have been appreciated by the likes of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former director general of World Health Organisation Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Not only primary care, the government also committed to improving access to tertiary care in the city. Hospitals such as Rajiv Gandhi Superspeciality Hospital, Tahirpur, and Janakpuri Superspeciality Hospital that had been constructed years ago, were operationalized by the AAP government within a year of coming to power. Three new hospitals, which were constructed during the two terms of AAP government in Burari, Ambedkar Nagar, and Dwarka, opened its doors to patients during the Covid-19 crisis and will soon start seeing other patients. These will add 2,613 beds to Delhi’s total.
The bed strength has already increased from 10,994 in 2015 to 12,464 in 2020. There are several new hospitals and remodelling of existing hospitals in the works.
Free tests, free surgeries, trauma care
The Delhi government has set up a free surgery scheme, wherein 1,016 surgical, 123 oncology and 10 neonatal procedures, and six medical packages that are either unavailable at its hospitals or have a waiting period of over one month can be done at listed private centres after a referral from a treating doctor.
The cost of the treatment is borne by the Delhi government from its corpus Delhi Arogya Kosh. After the second wave, when cases of the opportunistic fungal infection mucormycosis surged in the city, the government included surgery for it under the scheme.
Similarly, the Delhi government set up a scheme for tests like MRI and PET scan that are not available readily in government sector hospitals, where a referral from a government clinic or hospital assured that the people could get it for free at listed private centres.
The drawback, however, has been that the government hasn’t been able to upgrade its own facilities, with large hospitals such as Guru Teg Bahadur still operating without an MRI machine.
The government has also set up a scheme to pay for emergency treatment of victims of road accident, fire, and acid attack at any private hospital, provided the incident took place in Delhi. This was done to ensure that people receive timely treatment and do not have to reach government hospitals farther away just because they cannot pay for the treatment at private sector.
Ambulance services, health cards
After coming to power, the AAP government not only increased the ambulance fleet by 110 ambulances including 10 advanced life support ambulances, they also modernised the control room and dispatch system with vehicles as well as vitals of patients being tracked on a tablet in the ambulance.
The government also opened up the ambulance service for any emergency; earlier it was meant only for accident and pregnancy-related hospital visits.
The government has also made headway, alongside a push by the Central government, to digitise health records of Delhi residents so that they just need to take a card to any hospital rather than bulky files. The government has already floated a tender for the same.
The cards will first integrate the Delhi government hospitals, then all government hospitals, and then even the private sector. The cloud-based health management system will also help in tracking logistics such as real-time availability of beds.
The Delhi government already created a version of the same for Covid-19 beds during the pandemic. However, there have been reports of the dashboard not really being real-time leading to patients not getting beds at the height of the crisis.
