Delhi Dy CM and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia arrives to present the annual budget 2022-23 in Delhi Assembly, in New Delhi, Saturday, March 26, 2022. (PTI Photo) A major chunk of this year’s Delhi health budget has been allocated for the expansion of health infrastructure in the capital. The total outlay for the sector stood at Rs 9,769 crore for 2022-23, a decline of 1.6% over the Rs 9,934 crore allocated to the sector last year. This is the first time since the AAP government came to power that healthcare outlay has reduced.
Presenting the Annual Budget on Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Rs 1,900 crore will be allocated for the construction of four new hospitals and the redevelopment of 15 hospitals. These will together add 16,000 hospital beds in Delhi, Sisodia said. The four new hospitals include a 2,716-bed one at Siraspur and three 671-bed hospitals at Madipur, Hastsal and Jwalapuri.
There had been a jump of nearly 29% in the healthcare outlay last year amid the pandemic, including a Rs 50 crore allocation for the vaccination drive. Although the detailed Budget document is not out yet, officials in the know have said that allocation for the vaccination drive is likely to be reduced with over 90% of the adults in Delhi having been fully immunised against Covid.
Besides health infrastructure, the Delhi government also allocated Rs 70 crore for setting up a cloud-based Hospital Information Management System and a QR code-based e-health card. “A QR code-based e-health card will be made available to all citizens. This will help in identifying patients and getting basic information about their disease with geo-tagging. Apart from this, this system will also help in getting information of family trees i.e. family members. This will make it easier for all citizens to get treatment timely. An outlay of Rs 70 crore is proposed in the budget for the year 2022-23 for this scheme,” the deputy chief minister said.
There will be a 24×7 toll-free helpline for the cardholders, which can be used to book appointments in Delhi hospitals.
The government also allocated Rs 50 crore for its Delhi Arogya Kosh scheme that offers free diagnostics and procedures at private centres if they are not available or have a long waiting period at government centres. Till December 2021, as many as 2,804 victims of accident, acid attack or burns availed of the benefits, besides 977 who received surgeries and 71,559 who got free tests.
The government also allocated Rs 15 crore for Aam Aadmi Yogshala. “(As many as) 450 yoga teachers trained by DPSRU, Government of Delhi are teaching yoga daily to more than 15,000 people according to their time and convenience. For this, a separate provision of Rs 15 crore has been made in the Budget to continue this programme,” Sisodia said.
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