NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will this month begin identifying mohalla clinics whose OPD services draw around 150 patients daily.
Forty such clinics, once identified, are to function for 12 hours a day, from 7 am to 7 pm.
As of now, the mohalla clinics function from 8 am to 1 pm, six days a week.
The healthcare services in mohalla clinics are coordinated by one doctor, along with a pharmacist and a clinical assistant.
The clinics that will remain open for 12 hours will have two sets of healthcare professionals working in shifts.
“It is not about working hours only, but these are going to be different clinics. It could be said that 40 more clinics are going to be added,” said an official.
There will be no addition to the healthcare services offered in the clinics, the official added. At present, mohalla clinics offer basic outpatient services, including medicines and diagnostics, for free.
“More than 120 medicines and 12 tests are available, which no other structure could ever offer. What we are giving is more than required,” the official said.
The health department has set a target of opening 150 more clinics by mid-August. The mohalla clinic, which is Arvind Kejriwal’s flagship health programme, started in 2015, but has seen only 191 centres built against the projected 1,000.
The health department aims to add 500 new mohalla clinics within the next six months.
The department last month had brought out an advertisement seeking rented property to start mohalla clinics after failing to get clearances from the Delhi Development Authority and the civic bodies.
The government is offering up to Rs 20,000 rental for mohalla clinics.
Tenders have also been issued for outsourcing laboratory services for the clinics and mobile health services.
For the mohalla clinic, the tender seeks at least two rooms and two toilets spread over an area of 50-60 square metres.