Delhi’s health schemes still in planning stages, says Harsh Vardhan

In a letter to the Delhi chief minister on Saturday, Harsh Vardhan said that the response shows that the chief minister is least interested in the welfare of the people of Delhi.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday debunked Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s claim that the capital’s health scheme was 10 times bigger and more comprehensive than the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, saying that Delhi’s scheme was still in the planning stages.

The controversy erupted after Harsh Vardhan, on taking charge of the Union health ministry, on June 5 wrote to the chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal and urged them to join the Government of India’s flagship health protection scheme, Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. (HTPhoto)

In a letter to the Delhi chief minister on Saturday, Harsh Vardhan said that the response shows that the chief minister is least interested in the welfare of the people of Delhi.

“...the claim that the Delhi Government is implementing free health care and, therefore, need not implement Ayushman Bharat is baseless. All your fancy schemes, including the much-touted Universal Coverage Health Scheme, announced more than a year ago, are still in the drawing boards awaiting implementation, even after four and a half years.

“Your mohalla clinics are an utter flop and the drastic neglect of patient care in Delhi government hospitals is there for all to see,” the Union health minister elaborated in his reply.

Within hours of Harsh Vardhan’s letter, Delhi CM’s office responded by saying that his perception about mohalla clinics was wrong.

“...We invite him for a tour of mohalla clinics across the city. We would like to show him how mohalla clinics treat every Delhi resident equally and have so far tended to 5,000,000 patients in one year,” a Delhi government spokesperson said.

The official further said, “Ayushman Bharat is for the extremely poor but who will treat the rest? Delhi’s mohalla clinics and government hospitals can be taken as model healthcare facilities for the rest of India.”

The controversy erupted after Harsh Vardhan, on taking charge of the Union health ministry, on June 5 wrote to the chief ministers of Delhi, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal and urged them to join the Government of India’s flagship health protection scheme, Ayushman Bharat, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.