Private Diagnostic Services To Be Outsourced To Mohalla Clinics In Delhi

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday gave his nod to a proposal of the Arvind Kejriwal government to outsource private diagnostic and lab services to mohalla clinics.

"Expressing grave reservations on an obvious attempt at private outsourcing of Diagnostic Services in Delhi government hospitals, rather than strengthening them, LG VK Saxena has agreed to the Kejriwal government decision to outsource diagnostic and lab services in government hospitals to three private players, as a fait accompli presented to him," read a statement from Raj Niwas said.

"The decision being garbed by the AAP and its Ministers as an extension of diagnostic services in Mohalla Clinics beyond December 31, 2022, is in fact, an exercise to extend private outsourcing to all Delhi Government health facilities," the statement added.

The Kejriwal Cabinet, on July 28, decided to outsource private diagnostic services to government-run health facilities, hospitals, dispensaries, polyclinics and health camps, including PUHCs, similar to the arrangement that has been in vogue at mohalla clinics since December 30, 2019.

The Cabinet also selected three private vendors for providing specialised diagnostic services government hospitals and mohalla clinics.

On December 12, 2022, the Kejriwal government wrote to the L-G seeking his approval to outsourcing private diagnostic and laboratory services to government hospitals and mohalla clinics.

After giving his nod to the proposal, the L-G slammed the AAP government for not sending the file to him earlier.

"Caught on a wrong footing, due to an obvious lapse of not having taken a decision on time, and even after deciding way back in August 2022, not sending the file to LG for concurrence, the AAP and its Ministers, specifically Manish Sisodia indulged in characteristic gimmickry. Even while no decision had been taken, they kept announcing things in the media and to avoid embarrassment, after sending the file to LG on December 12, 2022, Sisodia wrote a letter to LG on December 24, 2022, in just 08 working days, requesting clearance of the file," Raj Niwas said.

Hitting out at the government, the L-G said the government has failed to provide pathological and diagnostic testing at government hospitals in the national capital.

"Doing so is prima facie admission that Government Hospitals/facilities run by the State Government have failed on the parameters of something as basic as pathological and Diagnostic testing. While such a decision on the part of the Governments in remote places, that lack facilities in terms of physical infrastructure and trained medical professionals in the Government sector, would have made sense, it obviously does not meet the requirements of a rational decision in the Capital of the country, owing to the fact that Government Hospitals/facilities in Delhi run by Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), as often claimed by the Government itself, are replete with ample physical infrastructure in terms of building, space, machinery and equipment as indeed medical professionals of the highest calibre," the statement read further.

Adding that the Delhi government should have strengthened the existing healthcare set-up at government hospitals so as to enable them to provide quality diagnostic services even at mohalla clinics, instead of outsourcing the same, the L-G said, "I am constrained to mention that the ideal way forward in this regard would have been to strengthen and augment capacities of the Government Hospitals/facilities to the extent, that they became enabled to provide labs/diagnostic services to mohalla clinics, instead of the other way around as is being proposed through the instant Cabinet decision."

"In my opinion, this will further undermine the diagnostic capacities of our healthcare system at large, the strengthening of which, obviously seems to have been ignored by the Government for quite some time. It is also to be thought, as to what the existing physical infrastructure and full-fledged pathology departments in the Government Hospitals/facilities will do, henceforth," the L-G further said in the statement.

The L-G, in his notings on the file sent for his assent, pointed out despite the number of mohalla clinics in the Capital going up to 519 from 450 in 2022, the number of patients treated at these redimentary health dispensaries had actually come down from 3,416 patients per month per mohalla clinic in 2021 to 1,824 patients in 2022.

Even as the number of patients came down, the number of tests prescribed rose from 6,30,978 per month in 2021 to 9,30,000 tests per month in 2022, the L-G noted.

The L-G has advised that "an Impact Assessment Study for the quality of laboratory tests during the last 3 years and payment of bills thereof should be essentially carried out by a government agency/committee of experts and senior officers within the next three months and the report thereof (should) be submitted to this Secretariat."

Giving his nod to the Delhi government's proposal, the L-G noted, "It is my firm belief that health care facilities should be within reach of the poorer section of the society and public health facilities, in whichever way possible should be strengthened in terms of capacity, efficiency, logistic and infrastructure, rather than crippling them by resorting to private outsourcing at the cost of public exchequer."

"However, since the contract of the existing outsourcing agency is going to expire on December 31, 2022, and a fait accompli has been presented to me, I have no other option except to agree to the proposal in the immediate interest of the people - interest, that would have been served better in the long run, had the Government taken a holistic and timely view of strengthening the public health infrastructure in the city, rather than resorting to measures that in the long run, will only end up benefitting a few at the cost of discrediting and debilitating the Government health set up," added the statement from Raj Niwas.

Asking the government to file a compliance report in view of the suggestions made to improve basic healthcare services at government hospitals and clinics, the L-G said, "Ensure that a system of online registration of patients, as well as Aadhar-based / biometric tracking of patients, is set up within three months."

The L-G further instructed that the approved proposal be evaluated after a period of six months to ascertain its "efficacy, quality and genuineness and whether it is proving to be detrimental to the existing government diagnostic mechanism".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)