In a bid to improve efficiency of health services in the Capital, the Government is working on a new legislation. Not only is the Arvind Kejriwal Government planning on allowing evening shift/hours in dispensaries run by Delhi Government, private medical practitioners too would be allowed to run their clinics in Government-run dispensaries, according to initial reports. A well-placed source said that the Government intends to open about 1,000 new clinics on public-private-partnership (PPP) mode in the next few months.
“Either we will provide infrastructure to doctors to run these clinics, or we will go for 50:50 investment in setting up these clinics. The doctors would be given basic wages and the money they would be charging from patients can be shared between them and the administration,” said the source.
There are 40-odd hospitals and about 300 dispensaries being run by the city Government. There are also about 1,000 nursing homes registered with the local Government. A senior official said even as the majority of these dispensaries are located at prime properties, they are not functioning the way they ought to be.
“That’s why there is a serious thinking going on to allow private practitioners to run their clinics in the evenings from these dispensaries,” said the source, adding that on an experiment basis the Government may soon hand over the administration of a few Government hospitals to some private players, who have established their name in the healthcare sector.