New Delhi: The Delhi economic survey has revealed a significant decline in the number of medical institutions amidst COVID-19, compared to the corresponding figures in the preceding year.
After the first case of novel coronavirus was reported in March 2020, the Centre imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.
The Delhi economic survey report for the financial year 2021-22, was presented in the Delhi Assembly by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, which revealed that four hospitals are under construction and are expected to be completed by late 2022 or in 2023.
A semi-permanent or temporary ICU hospital will be constructed at seven locations, including Shalimar Bagh, Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya and GTB Hospital for better covid-19 management and to increase the bed capacity in a short period of time.
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Delhi Government to Adopt 4-tier Health Care Infrastructure Model
The survey report notified that the Delhi government will implement a "4-tier health care infrastructure model" having mohalla clinics and polyclinics at tier 1 and tier 2 for providing primary and secondary health care services.
According to the tabulated data for 2012-2020, mentioned in the survey report, Delhi has a total of 88 hospitals, including all government hospitals (allopathic, ayurvedic, homoeopathic and TB clinics), but excluding maternity homes and primary health centres.
The data revealed that in 2019, there were a total of 3,433 health institutions, which reduced to 3,389 in 2020.
The report showed that the number of medical institutions in Delhi has decreased in 2020, due to Covid-19 as the schools were shut, and 61 School Health Clinics were closed.
According to the report, there are a number of reasons behind the slow pace of extension of new health outlets including the non-availability of land, shortage of manpower and multiplicity of agencies among others. Moreover, all the hospitals, especially major hospitals in Delhi, attend to heavy patient workloads.
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Rise in Primary Health Centres
The data revealed that the number of hospitals did not change from 2019 to 2020, however, there was a sharp rise in the primary health centres slightly from seven in 2019 to 12 in 2020.
During this period, the number of dispensaries, including allopathic, Ayush, and mobile health clinics, decreased from 1,585 to 1,573 during this period. The count of maternity homes and sub-centres stood at 224 in 2019 and 138 in 2020.
In addition, three hospitals, Ambedkar Nagar Hospital, Indira Gandhi Hospital and Burari Hospital were constructed and started exclusively for COVID-19 facilities between 2020 and 2021 respectively.
The report showed that almost 11 hospitals, 7 COVID hospitals, were under construction or in the planning stage for the financial year 2021-22.
Four hospitals are under construction in Madipur, Sirsapur, Vikaspuri and Jwalapuri. For the Madipur project, the earlier plan of a 200-bed hospital has been revised and the bed strength has been increased to 691.
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Further, the report also notified that important indicators such as infant mortality rate, neonatal mortality rate, the under-five mortality rate in respect to Delhi stand at lower levels like 11, 10, and 19, compared to All India levels of 30, 23, and 36.
The survey report also reflected on the fertility rate of the National Capital, the total fertility rate (TFR) of Delhi, which is 1.5 and is among the lowest in India (All India level is 2.2). This rate indicates the achievement of the replacement rate. Similarly, the crude death rate of 3.3 per cent in Delhi is the lowest all over the country.
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