New Delhi: While presenting the seventh Budget of the Capital, the state's Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said that the health sector for the year 2021-22, has received a provision of Rs 9,934 crore which is 14 per cent of the total budget, which is around Rs 2000 crore more than the estimates of last year.
In the 2021-22 Budget the health allocation includes Rs 1,293 crore for capital projects and Rs 5,192 crore is for various schemes, programs and projects under the health sector which will include the new project like a Mahila Mohalla Clinic and 'Aam Aadmi Free Covid Vaccine' for which Rs 50 crores has been put aside. The government can currently vaccinate 45,000 persons daily which will be scaled up to 60,000 persons daily.
In the 2019-20 budget Health had received Rs 7,485 crore which included revenue budget of Rs 6,462 crore and capital budget of Rs 1,023 crore. An amount of Rs 3,737 crore was earmarked for implementation of various schemes, programmes and projects under this Sector.
As of now the city has 38 Multi- Specialty Hospitals, 181 Allopathic Dispensaries, 496 Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics, 27 Polyclinics, 60 Seed Primary Health Centers, 46 Ayurvedic, 22 Unani, 107 Homeopathic Dispensaries. There are 22 mobile health clinics covering 78 Day-Shelter Homes and 311 Night-Shelter Homes along with 61 school health clinics.
Sisodia in the sixth Budget had said, "Our target is to set up 1,000 Mohalla Clinics. Similarly, 25 Polyclinics are in operation and 94 more dispensaries are being remodelled to start polyclinics to provide specialized health care to the citizens. An outlay of Rs 375 crore is proposed for Mohalla clinics and Polyclinics in 2019-20." The minister pointed out that several of the government's projects were adversely affected due to the pandemic.
The pandemic exposed the lack of health infrastructure and the government has taken due notice of it in its budget. The government has allocated Rs 1,293 crore for various capital projects for expansion in health-related infrastructure. The projects will include construction of new hospitals in Jwalapuri, Sirspur, Madipur and Vikaspuri, redesign of 19 existing hospitals. The new construction will likely increase the bed capacity by 14,000.
The construction work of a 768-bed hospital at Burari has been completed which has been opened with 450 beds for Covid. Similarly, Ambedkar Nagar Hospital is also providing 200 beds for Covid patients from July 2020. The Indira Gandhi Hospital, which is under construction in Dwarka, will start functioning with a capacity of 1,241 from 2022.
The Finance Minister notably also gave a speech of gratitutde to the healthcare workers and other ancillary staff, because of whom the pandemic wss handled in the city.
The Delhi government will now also undertake the responsibility of having a 'Mahila Mohalla Clinic' around every woman in Delhi and services of gynaecologist and related diagnostic tests are made available for free. "In the first phase, 100 'Mahila Mohalla Clinics' are proposed to be established in different parts of Delhi, which will be progressively increased to at least one clinic in each ward," the Finance Minister said while announcing the budget.
In addition to this, of course, the Delhi government has announced a separate allocation of Rs 50 crore to ensure that all residents get the COVID-19 vaccine for free at Delhi government hospitals.