AAP govt identifies 20 Metro sites for Mohalla Clinics

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has identified 20 Metro stations to set up Mohalla Clinics in the city. The work will start after the Diwali, said the officials.

"Mohalla Clinics to be set up at the metro station. We have identified 20 sites and more to be identified soon," said Kailash Gahlot, the transport minister of Delhi who was in charge of finding out these sites.

"We have already identified schools to set up Mohalla Clinics and now the metro stations. This will help us to make more clinics at proper locations," a senior official of the health department said.

He elaborated that a general complaint against the Mohalla Clinics are that these are situated at remote places. Hence the department was looking for locations which are easily reached.

"Metro stations are the best places in terms of communication and we are happy to get the permission," said the official.

After coming to power, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stressed upon the upgradation of city's primary healthcare.

The AAP government planned to set up 1,000 Mohalla Clinics across the city, in a bid to ensure everyone can find a clinic within 1 km radius of their homes. Currently, there are around 155 functional Mohalla Clinics in Delhi.

The Mohalla Clinic files were pending with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal but eventually, the AAP government got the approval on the initiative. After the clearance, the government first targeted to set up clinics at the schools and got the approval from the education department. In the next phase, the government will upgrade the dispensaries to Mohalla Clinic.

"We have a target to convert the existing dispensaries to Mohalla Clinics and the bigger ones will be converted to polyclinics," said an official.

The Delhi government started working for setting up 450 mohalla clinics by this month, out of which 250 will be made inside government school premises.

According to Delhi government sources, the first target will be underdeveloped areas of the national Capital. In both the cases of school premises and metro premises the officials said that no disruption to the students or the commuters would take place.