Longer Wait Time For Surgeries, 'Dire Condition' Of Mohalla Clinics: CAG Report On Delhi Health Facilities
The CAG report on Public Health Infrastructure for March 2022 made several observations, including lack of adequate staff, longer wait time for surgeries and shortage of medicines.
The Delhi Assembly on Friday tabled another Comptroller and Auditor-General report on the condition of health services in the national capital during the previous AAP government.
A review of the medical infrastructure of the capital revealed an under-utilisation of funds provided by the centre during the Covid-19 pandemic and a severe shortage of staff.
The CAG, in its seven-page report, slammed the 'dire condition' of mohalla clinics and other failings - not having enough doctors and nurses, the lack of funding for maternal health programmes, ambulances without key equipment and absence of ICUs, NDTV reported.
The government reportedly used Rs 582 crore of the Rs 787 crore released by the centre during the pandemic.
The CAG report said that the AAP government failed to utilise the budget to increase hospital beds even as there was a "significant shortage of manpower in the public health sector".
It also highlighted that 21 'mohalla' clinics in Delhi did not have bathrooms and 15 had no power back-up.
CAG Report on Public Health Infrastructure
The CAG report on Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services for March 2022 made several observations, including lack of adequate staff, longer wait time for surgeries and shortage of medicines.
The report said that there was a shortage of 21 per cent staff in the Health & Family Welfare Department of Delhi.
"As of March 2022, there was a deficit of about 21 percent staff in the Health & Family Welfare Department of GNCTD. There was an overall shortage of 30, 28, and 9 percent in the category of teaching specialists, non-teaching specialists, and medical officers, respectively, in 28 hospitals/colleges, records of which were furnished to the audit," the report stated.
It said that the average wait time for major surgeries in hospitals, like Lok Nayak Hospital (LNH) was 2-3 months.
"Average waiting time for major surgeries in the Surgery Department and Burn & Plastic Surgery Department of Lok Nayak Hospital (LNH) was 2-3 months and 6-8 months, respectively. At the same time, six out of 12 modular OTs in Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) were lying idle due to a shortage of manpower," it added.
The report said that the Essential Drug List (EDL) was not prepared annually and "was prepared only thrice in the last ten years."
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