The Delhi government is engaging in a recruitment drive to fill posts in its Mohalla Clinics, its primary health centres which aim to provide access to healthcare for denizens of the national capital.
The scheme recently saw an expansion with the inauguration of 100 new Clinics in the capital, taking the total number of such facilities to 300. “It has been our mission to provide high-quality, free healthcare facilities to all residents of Delhi, within a one kilometre radius of their homes,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said at the launch. “We are now close to achieving this goal. On days like this, I feel the purpose of ordinary citizens entering politics has been fulfilled.”
The initial target of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led state government when it first came to power in 2015 was to construct 1,000 Mohalla Clinics during its first time. However, “an impasse over decision-making powers and difficulties obtaining land have frustrated progress.”
“The land owning agencies weren’t very forthcoming to provide space,” an official explained. “Therefore, we have started to rent spaces for the clinics. Some people have also offered their premises for opening the primary health centres free of cost.”
Nonetheless, the official expressed optimism that the national capital will see a total of 500 Mohalla clinics “in the next two to three months”, in advance of Legislative Assembly elections in February. To staff the clinics, a recruitment drive invites applications for medical professionals who will be salaried at Rs 40 per patient, with a guarantee of being able to see at least 75 patients each day. The response thus far has been positive, the official added.
The Mohalla clinics comprises part of the push for accessible healthcare in Delhi by the AAP government, which state health minister Satyender Jain expanding on the three-tiered approach the administration is taking to healthcare. “[The] first tier is the mohalla clinics, and there are more than 300 such clinics in Delhi, with all several diagnostic tests and medicines available,” he said. “On the secondary level, there are 125 polyclinics in Delhi, out of which 26 are functional with specialists available inside the clinics. On the tertiary level, there are multi-specialty hospitals and super-specialty hospitals.”
Kala paliya