Hospitals need to assess stocks well in advance: Jain

Health Minister Satyendar Jain says there is no need for more recruitment of staff to manage the rush of patients at Delhi government hospitals. In an interview, he says the planned mohalla clinics will decongest the bigger hospitals. Excerpts:

Hospitals in the city have reported a shortage of medicines. Is the Central Procurement Agency not effective in bridging the demand and supply gap?

Medicines under the Essential Medicines List are available across hospitals. I will not claim that 100 per cent of the medicines are available. But 90 per cent of the medicines are definitely available at present. The CPA will bridge the remaining gap. There was opposition against centralised purchase from different quarters in the department because of various reasons. But centralised purchases will be more cost effective than local purchases. This is only a transition phase. Hospitals need to assess the stocks well in advance and procure them through the CPA.

Delhi government had plans to come up with warehouses for buffer stocks of medicines. Will it resolve the existing problems in medicine supply?
The government has plans for three warehouses which will be operational within the next one and a half months. The additional stocks at the warehouses can be immediately sent whenever a hospital reports shortage in medicines.

Overcrowding at government hospitals continues to be the major challenge in the existing healthcare system. Will the coming up of mohalla clinics and polyclinics change the situation?
We are planning to handle over three crore OPD visits in a year in mohalla clinics alone. This will decongest the hospitals. The mohalla clinics are the new dispensaries and the polyclinics will function as hospitals. The tertiary care hospitals will handle referral cases.

Recently, a dedicated maternity centre at Kanti Nagar was turned into a polyclinic. Experts have said this may not be a good idea as there is a need to boost dedicated maternity centres.
We had carried out an assessment which showed that there were only 18-20 deliveries at the maternity centre per month. This means that on average there was not even one delivery daily. We were maintaining a full team of staff and the delivery rate was so poor. Women were not willing to go for deliveries there in case of complications. The beds of the maternity centre have now been added at Hedgewar Hospital. We are trying to achieve 100 per cent institutional deliveries in Delhi, which will be possible through the new system.

Hospitals across the city have reported an acute shortage in staff to handle the footfall of patients. What is the government’s plan for fresh recruitments?
In the existing system, the available resources are being wasted. What is needed is the proper deployment of the available resources so there is no wastage. We will be judged by the performance. So I do not think fresh appointments are required currently.