The Delhi government on Tuesday allocated ₹7,485 crore for the health sector in its 2019-20 budget with Rs 588 crore being proposed for construction of new hospitals and re-modelling of existing ones. This includes revenue budget of ₹6,462 crore and capital budget of ₹1,023 crore.
An amount of ₹3,737 crore is earmarked for implementation of various schemes, programmes and projects under the health sector. This is an up from an outlay of ₹6729 crore in 2018-19 which included ₹3259 crore earmarked for implementation of various schemes, programmes and projects under the sector.
Deputy CM Manish Sisodia presented the budget and noted that the proposed outlay of ₹3,737 crore in 2019-20 for various projects is 45.07% higher than the revised estimate of ₹2,576 crore in 2018-19.
Action on defaulters
Mr. Sisodia added that the Drugs Control Department has adopted a “zero-tolerance” approach towards pharmaceutical drug abuse and taken stringent action against defaulters. “The department has cancelled or suspended 386 drug licenses of manufacturing units and sales premises till December 2018, who were found violating norms,” he said.
The government noted that 189 Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics have been set up and 333 more such clinics will be set up by the end of June 2019. “Our target is to set up 1,000 mohalla clinics. Similarly, 25 polyclinics are in operation and 94 more dispensaries are being re-modelled to start polyclinics to provide specialised healthcare to citizens. An outlay of ₹375 crore is proposed for mohalla clinics and polyclinics in the current budget,” Mr. Sisodoa said.
Enhancing bed strength
“To enhance the total bed strength from 10,000 beds to 20,000 in hospitals, the work on construction of a 600-bed hospital at Ambedkar Nagar and an 800-bed hospital at Burari, will be completed shortly. The construction of a 1,241-bed hospital at Dwarka is at an advance stage,” according to the budget.
Projects for re-modelling of existing hospitals - RTRM Hospital, Acharya Shree Bhikshu Hospital, Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital, Bhagwan Mahavir Hospital, Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, Dr Baba Sahib Ambedkar Hospital and Guru Govind Singh Hospital, and other facilities, at a cost of ₹963 crore have been sanctioned, Mr. Sisodia pointed out.
The Deputy CM observed that good samaritans who help road traffic accident victims to reach hospitals for medical care are given a financial incentive of ₹2,000 along with a certificate of appreciation. He said an outlay of ₹2 crore is proposed for this scheme in 2019-20.
Under the scheme of conducting high-end radiology test -- MRI, CT Scan and ultrasound -- at private centres, an outlay of ₹49 crore is proposed in 2019-20, the budget said.
