NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta on Friday said despite a significant budgetary allocation of Rs 7,500 crore on healthcare services, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had failed miserably to boost existing medical services by way of more polyclinics, dispensaries and mohalla clinics. Goel said that these rudimentary healthcare facilities are the first contact points for the common man to avail medical services but in place of expanding, these services have shrunk during the four-and-a-half-year rule of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
“The AAP government failed to open even a single poly-clinic in four-and-a-half years. Several plots earmarked for poly-clinics remain vacant. While the government has enough funds at its disposal, it lacks the will to expand existing medical services,” Gupta said.
He said that the government has also stopped releasing funds to municipal corporations to fund initiatives in the health sector. “It resulted in financial deprivation of municipal bodies and impaired their effort to open new dispensaries and poly-clinics,” Gupta said.
He claimed the Kejriwal government has opened only two new dispensaries till date. “Not only this, the government is also working on a plan to close 50 dispensaries and replace them with Aam Aadmi Clinics. It is ignoring the fact while a dispensary treats 300 - 350 patients every day, a clinic can only tend to 100-150 patients daily. Hence, closing dispensaries would only pile on the miseries of poor patients,” Gupta said. No AAP leader could be reached for a response.