The Delhi Government’s attempt to provide quality and free healthcare to residents of the national Capital by introducing Mohalla Clinics has created a positive impact on the lives of those who earlier could not afford even basic health treatment.
Mamta Devi, who lives in Gopalpur in north Delhi, is all praise for the Delhi Government for starting Mohalla Clinics and helping poor people to get primary heath treatment hassle free. “Very importantly you get all these facilities at your doorsteps without travelling far from the home,” she said.
Clinics provide primary medical care based on standard treatment protocols which include common illness like fever, headaches, coughs or colds, diarrhoea, skin problems, respiratory problems, first aid for injuries and skin ailments such as rashes, pimples, ulcers in the mouth, toothaches and check-ups for diabetes and blood pressure.
Narrating her ordeal, she went through a few years ago, Mamta said her child Rohit, 14, was down with fever and she had no money to take him to a doctor so she waited for two days, thinking the fever will subside.
“But his condition deteriorated day -by-day and she had to sell a few ornaments left with her to get him treated in a private dispensary. But that all is gone since Mohalla Clinic opened in her locality,” she said. Recently, when her husband complained of severe stomach pain, Mamta was suggested by a friend to visit Mohalla Clinic at Wazirabad Village. She visited clinics and got treated with much ease and even without spending a single penny. She then she is well-impressed by the clinic. Mamta is not the only one as other residents of Delhi too are benefitting from the clinic.
Rama Mahto, who sells vegetables at Badarpur, said people like him who work hard to survive, can now get basic treatment with the opening of such clinics. “It has been a big relief for us,” he said.
Being a daily labourer, Mahto could hardly manage to visit even a local practitioner. Earlier, he had to travel long to get treated for basic ailment but according to him, things have changed since the Delhi Government opened a Mohalla Clinic in his area.
Residents said they have greatly benefited from Mohalla Clinics. Moreover, they said the clinic has made life easy for the poor by providing free healthcare to all.
Fatima, a housewife said, “My daughter got fever last week. I took her to the Mohalla Clinic. The doctor examined and gave some medicine and he recovered after two days. Importantly, I had to pay nothing for availing the services,”
“Providing affordable health facilities is duty of the Government and getting it is our rights. I am very delighted to have a clinic in this locality,” she said.
Terming the move an innovative and people centric, Ramdhari Singh, a resident of Tehkhand near Okhla, said he recently visited a Mohalla Clinic situated at Mehrauli- Badarpur road and was surprised to see that patients were being attended as it was a private dispensary. “Doctor was very corporative. He treated me very carefully and gave drugs free of cost,” Singh said.
Ramesh Bansal, a retired teacher, said majority of patients feel uneasy in approaching costly health facilities until they become seriously ill. “The easy access provided by the Mohalla Clinics has been encouraging patients to approach the clinics during early stage of the illness,” he said. World leaders like former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland too had praised the project for aiming to provide free public healthcare and indicated the need to scale up the project as well as improve its management.