The mohalla clinic at Todapur village in west Delhi is not only a hit with the poor in the neighbourhood for its free service but the concept has also caught the attention of people abroad.
It is because it offers cheap but quality medicines for over 200 ailments, including hypertension, diabetes and arthritis, said Dr R Pal, the general physician who is the only doctor working there. The clinic is open from 9 am to 1 pm.
It has become the most talked about among the neighbourhood clinics established by the Aam Aadmi Party government. This is mostly because of its medicine vending machine which dispenses free medicines at just a click of the button.
Nine other mohalla clinics in Delhi are in the process of getting similar vending machines, according to Dr Pal.
The simplicity of the technology developed for the poor has been appreciated worldwide, he told Deccan Herald.
Dr Pal writes and stores the patient’s medical history on a tablet computer. By clicking a button he can release the printout of the prescription. And with another click the medicines are dispensed from the machine installed in the same room.
The machine used to be accessed by the patients independently as well, but currently that feature is not working, he said. He said he has become “world famous” after he joined the clinic. Over the past six months, people from Hong Kong, Singapore and the United States have visited the clinic to understand how it functions.
He met people from Google in California on Tuesday in a discussion generated by Wish foundation, the knowledge partner working in coordination with mohalla clinics, he said.
Dr Pal was inducted in the Delhi government clinic after his retirement from a New Delhi Municipal Council hospital.
“Here I can see the patients every day. I do their tests, I see the results and I do a further examination accordingly. I am not dependent on laboratory tests,” he said.
For the last two months the clinic was open till 5 pm because of the flow of dengue and chikungunya cases.
It used to be packed with at least 60 to 90 patients with dengue or chikungunya fever, said Dr Pal.
All the medicines stocked in the vending machine are generic. But they are better than proprietary medicines which are available in the market as they have less side effects, said the doctor. These medicines helped hundreds of dengue and chikungunya patients who came to this clinic this year, he said.
“Proprietary medicines are stronger medicines so people are psychologically satisfied after consuming them. Their one dose is equal to three doses of the generic ones. So people don’t have to pop them as many times as the generic ones,” said Dr Pal.
The generic medicines are also very cheap, he said. When he told foreigners about their price, they were astonished, he said.