Delhi govt confident of meeting target of 1,000 mohalla clinics by 2019: Jain

The Delhi government is confident of meeting its overall target of building 1,000 mohalla clinics by the end of this year, Health Minister Satyender Jain said on Friday. The Delhi health minister visited a few mohalla clinics in the city, officials said.

Briefing reporters at the Delhi Secretariat, Jain said the city government is "much confident" about meeting its overall target of building 1,000 mohalla clinics by the end of this year. Currently, the number of mohalla clinics stands at 201, he said, adding that the target of building 1,000 clinics is a "self-imposed" one which the government is committed about.

He said the AAP government has also planned to run 500 such facilities on rent. "Also, 50 mohalla clinics are planned to be run in two shifts to accommodate more patients," Jain said.

The minister also shared data with reporters, according to which over 1.62 crore people have visited OPDs at the mohalla clinics since July 2015. He said more than 80 per cent of the patients who have visited are women, children and senior citizens.

A mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility for providing free primary healthcare to the city's residents closer home. A typical mohalla clinic has a doctor, a midwife-cum-nurse, and an array of diagnostic services and essential medicines are provided free of cost to patients there.

Jain claimed that mohalla clinics have helped in keeping quacks away, as people have a facility to go to for simple ailments. The plan is to have such facilities as close to households as possible, he said.

The average capital expenditure per newly built mohalla clinic is Rs 20 lakh and on an average it handles 94 patients per day, according to the Outcome Budget of Delhi government, tabled in the Delhi Assembly in February. The first mohalla clinic was set up in Peeragarhi area.

Former UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon and ex-Norwegian premier Gro Harlem Brundtland had last September visited the clinic at Peeragarhi. Jain also said that 94 new polyclinics are being planned to be built. At present, 24 polyclinics are operational in the national capital and the government had set a target of 125 such polyclinics in the next one year, he said.

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