New Delhi|HL Bureau
Delhi Government of Aam Aadmi Party has announced second budget of its tenure for the financial year of 2016-17.
According to data education was allotted Rs. 10,690 crore, or 23 percent of the total, and healthcare Rs. 5,259 crore, hike seen of Rs. 472 crore over last year’s budget.
About 15 percent of total budget allocated to health. This marks jump of 10 percent from last year.
Though they pushed the health sector on number three after Education and transport, the budget focused on healthcare make sure that the health facilities easily accessible to the people.
To bring primary health facilities to the door, government adopted three-tier strategy by setting up 1,000 mohalla clinics and 150 polyclinics in the state in next one year.
Apart from these the next step is to focus on infrastructure by developing multi-speciality and single speciality hospitals which also include the addition of 10,000 beds across hospitals in the capital.
“These clinics are designed to address common healthcare needs of citizens, undertake a large complement of diagnostic tests and provide all essential medicines,” said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
He added, “For minor health issues such as a cough and cold, one has to stand in long queues at hospitals. This leads to over-crowding.
The aim of the government is to make the first two tiers (mohalla clinics and polyclinics) handle such illnesses so that the burden on hospitals can be reduced and resources channelised towards special care.”
On government hospitals in Delhi being crowded by patients from not just the city but also other states, Sisodia said, “The healthcare system in Delhi is geared to manage over 3 crore OPD consultations, and over 6 lakh admissions each year, from the state and the neighbouring areas.
It is difficult to cope with the huge pressure of providing healthcare of this magnitude with the existing infrastructure.” In addition to this, all medicines and diagnostic centres in Delhi government hospitals will be free from March 1, 2016.
The other major highlights of budget are Government has finalized contours of sector wide, comprehensive Health Information Management System (HIMS) including a health card for citizens with a unique identifier.
The Government proposes to expand diagnostics facilities and complement its capacities through PPP based lab and radiology diagnostics services.
Delhi government also proposed to expand of CAT ambulances with 100 basic and 10 advanced life support ambulances.
Five “One Stop Centers” are presently functional in the state to provide immediate medical, Police, counselling services to the rape victims. Two more such centers will be functional shortly at RTRM Hospital and Dr. BSA Hospital as mentions in the budget.
