426 sites OK’d for Mohalla clinics

Delhi Government’s Health Department has finalised 426 sites for the opening of new Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics. Officials informed  Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal about the 426 newly finalised sites for Mohalla Clinics during the review meeting on  on Tuesday. The Chief  Minister  stock of Medical equipment in Operation Theatres (OTs) of the Government hospitals.

According to an official release, out of 426 sites, land for 177 locations has already been handed over to the Delhi Government.  As of now, around 187 functional Mohalla Clinics are there and the capacity will be increased to 613 Clinics.

“The work on these new Mohalla Clinics would be started soon.  Once these Mohalla Clinics are ready the number of Mohalla Clinics in Delhi would go up to at least 613 (426 + 187). However, this number will go up as joint inspections and review of non-feasible sites are done. The number of 613 Mohalla Clinics doesn't include the School Clinics which are under pipeline and soon to come up. The government has identified around 300-sites for School Clinics” it said.

Adding the number of 300-school clinics, the number of primary health centres in Delhi will go close to 1000-centres (Mohalla Clinics + School Clinics).

“The work on these new Mohalla Clinics would be started soon. So once these Mohalla Clinics are ready the number of these Clinics in Delhi would go up to at least 613. However, this number will go up as joint inspections and review of non-feasible sites is done”, said an official.

In the meeting, Kejriwal also enquired about the land of 249 locations which has not been handed over to the government yet. “Once the joint inspection and the review of the non-feasible sites are done, the number of the new sites for Mohalla Clinics is likely to go up by a good number”, informed the health department.

The health department also informed the chief minister that out of 190 OTs in  Delhi Government hospitals, 171 are fully functional. When Kejriwal enquired about 19 non-functional theatres,  the officials informed him that there were small issues of Public Works Department (PWD), manpower and lack of equipment due to which they were non-functional.”

“As a result, the chief minister asked the Principal Secretary (Health) to take immediate steps to make 100 per cent operation theatres functional. The chief minister has asked all the hospitals to become fully functional by 31 August barring some hospitals due to logistical and other issues, an official said.

It would be pertinent to mention here that Mohalla Clinics are the flagship programme of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led government and it was part of the election manifesto. “By opening these clinics in the localities across the national capital, the AAP Government has tried to take health facilities to all sections of the society”, an official of  the Health department said.