Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday laid the foundation stone of a new 362-bed trauma center at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital on Sunday. The trauma center will have world class medical facilities, including ICU beds, emergency beds and six operation theatres and is expected to be ready in 18 months.
Congratulating the Public Works Department (PWD) and health departments, the Chief Minister said, "Ordinarily large Government hospitals across the country are constructed at a cost of Rs 1crore per bed. This hospital should have cost Rs 362 crore but the Delhi Government is constructing it in just Rs 71 crore. This has been possible because Delhi has an honest and efficient government that saves peoples' tax money and is, therefore, able to provide the best services to all our people."
"We have saved Rs 190 crore in just one project. If I use this money to make medicines, treatment and tests free for the people of Delhi, is it wrong? The Opposition claims we are wasting money by providing free healthcare to people," Kejriwal tweeted.
Elaborating healthcare model of the Government, Kejriwal said, "We are matching the healthcare standards of Denmark, which is one of the most developed nations in the world. Denmark has universal healthcare coverage for all patients, rich or poor, can access free treatments in all the hospitals. We are matching the most progressive societies in the world like Denmark, USA and Japan, in terms of providing quality healthcare to the people."
Kejriwal further said that despite the massive expansion of public healthcare infrastructure in Delhi, some hospitals do see overcrowding. "This is because people from across the country are coming to Delhi now to access our hospitals. Today, someone from Bihar can take a Rs 500 ticket to the capital, get free treatment in our hospitals and return happily. It is a matter of great pride and happiness for us that the people of the entire country are confident in Delhi Government hospitals," he added.
Talking about massive expansion in health infrastructure, Kejriwal said the dispensaries in Delhi were prevailing in adverse conditions, and people had to rush and crowd the big hospitals for simple medical conditions, which is why the Delhi Government has constructed 200 mohalla clinics and construction 200 more clinics will be completed in another 10-15 days. Construction of 300 additional such clinics are being carried out will be completed by December."
"Delhi Government has designed the healthcare system of Delhi in such a way, that it should incorporate 1000 mohalla clinics, 122 polyclinics, and Delhi Government hospitals thereafter. The hefty cost of treatments has made the state Government provide free treatment to people in all the hospitals," he added.
The Chief Minister further said "The budget of Delhi was 30000 crore rupees before our government came into power. Today after five years, it is 60000 crore rupees. We stopped the raid raj system, and the people of Delhi realised how paying taxes is leading them towards a more developed city," he said.
"We have eliminated corruption from the capital, and are instead spending the money towards more developmental works in the city, like building schools and hospitals and providing free facilities to the people. We had decreased VAT from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent but increased facilities for the welfare of the people," he added.
The standard number of emergency beds in a 300-bed hospital would only be five to six per cent that would mean 15-20 emergency beds in a single hospital, he said, adding that the Delhi Government has necessitated that 40 per cent of the bed strength in a hospital should be emergency beds, owing to inadequate treatment facilities to the people because of non-availability of emergency beds. More than 50 per cent of beds have been reserved as ICU and emergency beds in Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital.
Health Minister Satyendra Jain said "Delhi Government has taken several welfare initiatives in the last five years such as installing 2.8 lakh CCTV cameras all over the capital city and 2.1 lakh LED lights all over Delhi, which is the biggest street light project all over the world.
"We have constructed 21,000 classrooms in our schools; no other Government in the world has done it in its single tenure. No other Government in the entire world has constructed such primary healthcare centers; in the way the Kejriwal Government has done in Delhi.
