NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party government has started converting the state-run dispensaries in Delhi into Aam Aadmi Polyclinics.
According to sources, the government is eyeing those dispensaries which were built by the previous government and were not catering to the targeted persons.
“The Delhi government has some dispensaries or Primary Urban Health Centres, but these clinics were ineffective. The patient count was around 25 in a day and permanent doctors were there. So the amount invested in maintaining those clinics was not bringing the intended benefits to patients,” said a senior official in the health department.
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The Delhi government has introduced a three-tier universal healthcare system in Delhi, in which the first tier comprises Mohalla Clinics, which address common healthcare needs, and the second is polyclinics, where patients with specialised needs are referred.
As per the government’s plan, polyclinics are specialist OPDs where medicine, gynaecology and paediatrics specialists are available every day and orthopaedics, eye and ENT specialists are available on selected days of the week. The purpose of these clinics was to save patients the hassle of visiting crowded hospitals and reduce the outpatient burden on government hospitals.
“Four such dispensaries have already been transformed into Aam Aadmi Polyclinics. Some of the dispensaries are very well located and convenient for patients to visit, but are remaining unutilised. Our target for polyclinics was 150, and we are trying to meet that as early as possible,” added the official.
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For reaching out to more patients, the dispensaries which are close to government-run hospitals are being selected on priority.
“The one in Ber Sarai has been connected to Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital. The benefit is that doctors from the hospital can also attend the clinic, while some doctors are already permanent. Like in the Mohalla Clinic, there is a general doctor, but we have noticed that patients also want specialist doctors... so we want to introduce this model. We want to get the specialist doctors from Delhi-run hospitals for certain hours and improve the patient care. We haven’t hired doctors on contract basis, but ideally that is our plan,” the official stated.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently said that work on 200 new Mohalla Clinics will be over in 10 to 15 days. Opening Mohalla Clinics has been one of the pet projects of the Kejriwal government.
Polyclinic plan
November 2015: The Aam Aadmi Polyclinic was first launched in East Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar26 polyclinics are currently being operated by the government, and there are around 200 dispensaries in the state.150 Aam Aadmi Polyclinics are planned to be opened