Karnataka minister Dinesh Gundu Rao came back disappointed from a visit to a Delhi mohalla clinic in Panchsheel Park on Friday, calling it “overhyped”. His reaction came hours after he first heaped praise on the pro-people initiative introduced by the Aam Aadmi Party in the national capital.
Rao said he wanted to see for himself how mohalla clinics were working in Delhi as the recently started Namma clinic service in Karnataka is similar. Mohalla clinic is a neighbourhood facility providing free primary healthcare to residents and is one of the flagship initiatives of the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.
“I wanted to visit a mohalla clinic myself to see how it is working… In Karnataka, too, we have Namma clinic similar to this (mohalla clinic)… So, we can make changes to them after examining the model here, that’s why I came here,” said Rao, who visited the facility with AAP minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and Karnataka Bhavan medical officer Karthik.
But, the Karnataka health minister was left unimpressed and said the mohalla clinic initiative was “not a game-changer”, and that there were many such models in his state as well as Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “It is not that impressive. We have such models in our state as well. There were not many people. It is not a game-changer. I am not saying it is bad, but it is not like the way it is made out to be… There are many models in the south — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka — from primary to super-specialty hospitals… So, it’s not a game-changer…” he said.
Rao went onto say that such clinics in Karnataka have more facilities, including a laboratory to do immediate tests for patients. “I guess it is overhyped and I came back feeling disappointed,” he added.
Hours earlier, when the minister was visiting the clinic, he praised the model and said it is functioning “very well” but later made a U-turn.
Comparison with namma clinics unjust, says AAP
Reacting to this, the AAP said Rao changed his stance after he received a “mysterious phone call”. The party said during the visit, he received a phone call and left the location citing an “important meeting” and, a while later, tweeted criticising the mohalla clinic.
According to the Kejriwal-led party, a comparison between namma clinic and mohalla clinic is unjust. Rao said the namma clinics in Karnataka were better equipped, but the AAP said it sent a team to one of these clinics from its Karnataka unit to verify the minister’s claims.
The AAP team visited the namma clinic located in Ward 94 of Gandhi Nagar in Rao’s constituency, and found deficiencies in healthcare facilities. The party said the clinic provides only basic medicines for some illnesses; patients are referred to larger hospitals, informed a doctor.
The team also found that both the clinic and the primary health centre (PHC) were located adjacent to each other and people said the PHC had been closed for a long time. Namma clinic, in reality, is just a name, the party said.
The AAP further said it is unfortunate situation that Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao visited Delhi’s mohalla clinic and later criticised the facilities. “Dinesh Rao should visit Ward 94’s namma clinic in his constituency and assess the quality of healthcare services being provided. Namma clinic has hygiene issues, while the operations of mohalla clinics are monitored by a private agency. The claim made by the health minister that namma clinic’s infrastructure is superior to mohalla clinic’s is false,” the AAP said.
The party said mohalla clinics are well-equipped and treatment is provided for free. Numerous tests are conducted these clinics and MBBS doctors are available here, providing medicines for different illnesses.
What Karnataka minister said earlier
During the visit earlier, Rao saw the facilities at the clinic and enquired after the staff. “I had heard a lot about mohalla clinics and I wanted to see them personally. I wanted to discuss how they (AAP government) are implementing the health policies,” he had told reporters.
“In southern states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, health has always been a priority. Every state has got something good that we can learn from. We have something similar (to mohalla clinics)… we have ‘namma clinics’. We wanted to see how we can improve our system,” he had said.
Even Bharadwaj praised the hospitals in Karnataka and said he was “very happy” that his counterpart is visiting Delhi’s mohalla clinics. “We will also visit their state. All states should learn from each other,” he had said.
In fact, Kejriwal tweeted about the minister’s visit: “Karnataka health minister visits Delhi mohalla clinics. We welcome him and his team. We all have to learn from each other. Delhi will also learn from the good work done by Karnataka govt.”
Delhi, at present, has more than 500 mohalla clinics offering free primary healthcare services to patients, including 212 different types of medical tests.
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