Three IAS Officers, two Special Secretaries and the Secretary of the Health Department, of Delhi government have written to Health Minister, Saurabh Bhardwaj, who has been habitually writing notes to them and shifting the blame for failures of the health infrastructure of the AAP Government.  During the past few months, Bhardwaj has been writing these notes and putting them out in public domain through the Media / Social Media.

In their comprehensive note to the Minister, the officers have pointed out the various failures of the Minister / the Government by way of sitting on files and returning them time and again, without any concrete reason.

The issues raised by the officers include delay in construction of ill-planned 11 green field and 13 brown field hospital projects by over 03 years leading up to 100% cost escalation.  Despite a total cost of Rs 8,000 Cr required for completing these projects a meagre Rs 400 Cr. had been budgeted in FY 2024-25 ;

Secondly, non-implementation of the Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) even after 08 years of its announcement simply due to the fact that the Minister did not want to implement NIC’s NextGen e-Hospital Software, which was costed far less Rs 55 Cr in comparison to the tendered amount of  Rs 130 Cr.

Thirdly, non-preparation of the Essential Drug List (EDL) since as long as 2016 and making the Central Procurement Agency (CPA) infructuous.

Fourthly, non-implementation of PMJAY (Ayushman Bharat) pointing out that Delhi is “tragically” among three States in the country, which has not implemented PMJAY.  It has been pointed out that the file in this regard had been pending with the Ministers since 2018 and is causing a major problem in providing healthcare to huge migratory population, a major chunk of which consists of building and construction workers, labourers, domestic workers and artisan, etc., who do not have ration cards in Delhi and therefore, cannot avail of Delhi Government’s schemes.

The officers also flagged non-implementation of PM-ABHIM for creation of Urban Health And Wellness Centres (UHWCs), District Integrated Public Health Lab (DIPHL) and Critical Care Blocks (CCBs), despite the Central Government providing Rs 2406 Cr. for the same;

They have pointed out that in spite of higher expenditure and shorter working hours, AamAadmiMohalla Clinics (AAMCs) are not providing preventive care like immunization, pre-natal / post-natal check-ups and various National health programs.  The design of AAMCs revolve around per patient payment basis, which makes it exorbitantly expensive.

The officers have requested the Minister for an early decision on all these crucial issues saying that it will resolve all the problems.

The officers the Minister has been sending notes about the Department in bunches everyday about –

1.     Non Availability of medicines in AAMCs/Hospitals/etc.

2.     Non Availability of equipments/space crunch in Hospitals, overcrowding of Hospitals, poor maintenance, lack of cleanliness etc.

3.     Resolving the issue of construction of Hospitals/Polyclinics etc as requested by various elected representatives (i.e. Hon’ble MLAs) and duly forwarded to Hon’ble Minister to this office for taking action.

The officials said  the Minister may further use his high office to find ways to increase the Budget of the Department by almost doubling the same to ensure completion of all the badly delayed projects for the benefit of citizens of Delhi.

“The Minister may also decided on the issue of PM-ABHIM for augmenting the resources to improve the health infrastructure and to provide seamless treatment to citizens of Delhi to avoid untoward incident like denial of service to the patients, regular maintenance of Health Infrastructure for safety of the patients and citizens of Delhi.

Similarly, a decision is required for the implementation of PMJAY Ayushman Bharat Scheme to benefit the migrant population of Delhi.  In case, these are not approved, Hon’ble Minister may lay down a clear plan with clear budget and creation of manpower for doing the same so that all issues raised by Hon’ble Minister can be resolved by the Department.

“Without deciding upon these crucial issues, sending multiple notes to take action will only lead to wastage of manhours of the officials in the Department and divert the health personnel from core work (in preparing replies for the same) leading to poor service delivery and monitoring,” the officials said in a note to Bharadwaj.