Free health facility rolled out, Health ID on the Cards

“We will launch a mobile application tomorrow through which people getting treatment at government-run hospitals can complain of non-availability of free medicines prescribed by the doctors. People will have to upload the picture of prescriptions through the App,” said Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendra Jain launching the scheme. 

“Once the picture of non-availability of medicines is sent via this app, he or she will instantly get a message or call informing the complainant when these medicines will be available in the hospital,” he added. The government has also issued a helpline - 8745051111 - for registering complaints pertaining to any shortage of medicine supply in the government hospitals via text message.

Complainants can also send the names of medicines which are on shortage through a text message to the number 8745051111. Soon after, the complainant will get a response and will be informed about the availability of the same medicines at the hospital.

On January 17, Kejriwal had announced to waive user charges at all government hospitals from February 1 and would make available medicines and diagnostic tests free of cost, using the money “saved” from three flyover projects. 

He had made this announcement during the inauguration of an elevated corridor between Mangolpuri to Madhuban Chowk at Outer Ring Road, which he had said was built at the cost of Rs 300 crore “well below the sanctioned cost of Rs 450 crore”.  

Earlier, for this financial year, the government had made a budgetary provision for setting up 500 Mohalla Clinics in the financial year 2015-16. The Delhi CM had inaugurated the first Mohalla Clinic at JJ Colony in North West Delhi, and this clinic clocked some 3,500 patients in its maiden month of July 2015. 

The Delhi government is also planning to issue health cards- Delhi Health ID, to all citizens in the city to ensure easy availability of disease history, ongoing treatment and prescription details. Tenders have already been issued for selection of the private concessionaire who will execute the work. 

The card will help streamline patient services apart from creating a real time data on disease burden.

As per the plan, the electronic health record of all citizens will be collated through a centralised web-based application. It will be accessible free of cost to all health institutions, either public or private on the pattern of developed nations and countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. 

The policy which is being worked out by Delhi Dialogue Commission will allow mobility as patients will not be required to carry his or her medical records before seeing another doctor. Furthermore, the aggregation of such data from across the state will help policymakers prepare an action plan to fight diseases. 

A senior government official said that the clinic will cater to people living within one-kilometre distance and the government hopes that people will not have to walk for more than 10-14 minutes to have access to primary health care. “The Public Works Department (PWD) has been given the task of setting-up clinics for providing quality public health care to the people of Delhi at their doorstep,” the official said.

The Centralised Accident and Trauma Service (CATS) - Delhi had provided round the clock pre-hospital emergency response services across the National Capital Region of Delhi. This will be coordinated through an emergency response centre accessible through a toll-free number (102) which will focus on three objectives: Prevention in the loss of life and minimisation of the pain a patient suffers. 

Expansion of the existing fleet of ambulances will be provided by including 150 new ambulances comprising 141 Basic Life Support (BLS) units, and 9 Advanced Life Support and 20 First Responder vehicles (two-wheelers). Out of these, 39 ambulances would be operated through CATS, coordinated and monitored by the same emergency response centre, and the rest would be handled by a separate private contractor. 

CATS private partner, Fortis Emergency Services, role will include providing Emergency Medical Response (EMR) services in coordination with police and fire officials within a response time of 15 minutes and provide pre-hospital care (including basic stabilisation) to patients under the supervision of trained personnel at all times in their transportation to the 

nearest hospital. 

Ambulances and first responders will be equipped with wireless sets and two-way radio communication, with tetra compatibility and GPS communication systems.