Special teams to monitor functioning of Mohalla clinics

The Delhi government, which is on an expansion spree of opening Mohalla clinics across the city, will form special teams to make sure that they function efficiently and provide the required benefits to patients.

According to sources, formation of teams is being mulled that would comprise senior health officials and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA’s and would look into issues such as availability of medicines, absence of doctors during duty timings, proper functioning of medical equipment and behaviour of doctors with patients.

Speaking to Millennium Post, a senior health official of the Delhi government said: “To improve healthcare in the city, we want to launch services through the Mohalla clinics and the polyclinics that can later be introduced effectively in the super-speciality hospitals.” Giving an example, the official said the process of digitisation in all Delhi hospitals and making them paperless has been started in the Mohalla clinics.

The issue of creation of special teams was also raised by AAP MLA from Delhi Cantonment Surinder Singh, during the inauguration of the Mohalla clinic at Munirka, who mentioned that a committee will be formed, that will look into effective discharge of services at the clinics. Singh also assured that unlike before when many patients used to avoid Delhi government health services due to the ill-treatment meted out to them by the medical staff and lack of services, the Mohalla clinics and the polyclinics will provide doorstep convenience to patients with free availability of medicines.

Planned as a pilot project, 100 Mohalla clinics will be launched, with 22 clinics inaugurated on Thursday. However, they are running on a temporary basis and have been leased to the Delhi government. Health Minister Satyender Jain said that in the next four months 14 permanent Mohalla clinics will be launched.

The Delhi government launched the Mohalla clinics and polyclinics to improve primary healthcare and reduce the burden on city hospital OPD’s. It is also on a hiring spree of doctors for these institutions, with MBBS being the basic criteria.