To avoid delays, govt may rent spaces for mohalla clinics

New Delhi: Delhi government plans to rent premises in areas where there is no land available to construct new mohalla clinics. A senior official in the state health department said this is the only way to expedite the construction of 1,000 clinics across the city.

Currently, only 191 mohalla clinics are operational in the capital.

“It is difficult to get land for the clinics. Even if we get government land, there are series of permissions required, which eventually delays the project. Renting premises is an easier and a faster option,” the official said.

The first mohalla clinic was started by Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government in 2015 in Punjabi Basti, a relief camp in Peeragarhi. Of the 530 mohalla clinics the government targeted to build by 2018-19, only 191 (36%) are readyAround 90 of these are already running from rented premises, an official said.

In a joint survey by PWD and district medical officers, 390 sites were found feasible to set up porta cabins where the mohalla clinics could be operationalised. Of this, 290 sites were handed over to PWD, and currently, construction of porta cabins is on in 146 places, said the official.

The government had also planned to set up 150 polyclinics, envisaged as the second tier of public health in the state. However, as per the recent outcome budget report, no new polyclinic has been constructed since 2017-18. The government had planned to build 150 of these in 2018-19. Now, the new target has been reduced to operationalising only 73 polyclinics. TNN