Delhi CM calls AAP’s health model ‘sick’, promises makeover
New Delhi: Describing previous AAP government’s health model and hospitals as “sick”, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday said that CAG findings on health department’s mismanagement, distribution of fake drugs, wastage of public money and shortage of doctors reconfirm what the BJP has been claiming.
Concluding the discussion on report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Performance Audit on ‘Public Health Infrastructure & Management of Health services’, CM Gupta said the wrongdoings can be summed up by saying, “Fake medicines were given to patients, and real payments were made in the name of fake patients.”
CM Gupta trained her guns on the previous AAP government’s and said, “Only corruption was perpetrated over the past 10 years in the name of health model.”
She promised to work tirelessly and improve the condition of hospitals and the health department that had suffered a lot under the AAP government.
“We are working tirelessly to rid each department of debt and all our ministers and legislators will deliver all the promises made by us,” she said.
CM Gupta hit out at the previous AAP government for making city hospitals sick and using ghost patients for misappropriating funds, while failing to fill vacancies of doctors and nurses.
“The issue is not that of under-utilisation of Budget, the issue is not of inadequate addition of beds or drug shortage but the issue is that of harassment that the patients faced and the ill-treatment they faced,” she said.
She criticised the Mohalla Clinic scheme of the AAP government saying, “Everything related to Mohalla Clinics was fake – medicine, patients, staff and test – but only one thing was real and that was payment and wastage of public money.”
She said corruption and theft in all welfare schemes had become a habit of the AAP government. “They even stole the social media handle of the CMO. We were forced to file a complaint against them.”
The Opposition members walked out of the House, demanding payment of Rs 2,500 per month to women, as she enlisted failures of the AAP government and highlighted that 234 posts of duty medical officers were vacant, over 2,000 nursing posts were vacant and 2,796 posts of paramedic posts were vacant.
Hitting out at the Opposition, CM Gupta said, “They have resorted to wastage of time of the Assembly because they don’t want to face the truth exposed by the CAG reports.”
She also hit out at wasteful expenditure under the AAP government, saying hospital godowns were full of PPE kits, masks, oxygen cylinders and other equipment lying unused.
“During Covid, one mask costing Rs 10 was bought for Rs 150 to swindle money,” she said, referring to the findings of the CAG report.
CM Gupta slammed the mismanagement under the AAP government, saying that 24 hospital projects which were launched under the previous regime could not be completed. “Cost of many projects has doubled and these are still far from complete,” she said.
Referring to Arvind Kejriwal’s acceptance, in the run-up to elections, that he failed to deliver on promises, including cleaning the Yamuna and providing clean water, she said, “I am happy that finally Kejriwal ended up speaking the truth and accepting his failures.”
CM Gupta said Opposition members have been shaken by just the two CAG reports that have been tabled in the House. “They don’t have the courage to face the criticism
Earlier, Tilak Nagar legislator Jarnail Singh was ordered to be marshalled out of the House for disrupting CM Gupta’s address with slogan shouting.
During the first half of debate on the CAG report, Delhi Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said that the government will order an enquiry into the wrongdoings in hospitals and health centres pointed out in the CAG and not a single person involved in corruption will be spared.
In a bid to defend the previous AAP government, Leader of Opposition Atishi tried to raise the negative CAG observations over the functioning of other states but Speaker Vijender Gupta expunged her remarks.
At the end of the discussion on the CAG report, Speaker Vijender Gupta referred the report to the Public Accounts Committee for giving a report in three months.
He also asked the Health Department to file an action-taken report on the CAG findings within one month.
The CAG audit report, tabled in the House on February 28, flags gross under-utilisation of funds during the pandemic. Only about Rs 582.84 crore of the total Rs 787.91 crore released by the Central government for tackling Covid was utilised.
“Rs 83.14 crore of the released Rs 119.85 crore for drugs and supplies, including PPE and masks, remained unutilised,” the report highlighted, calling the inaction as tantamount to criminal negligence.
The CAG report said that shortage of manpower remains a problem across many noted hospitals, including Lok Nayak hospital, Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya and more.
“The deficit in the cadres of nurses and paramedic staff is about 21 per cent and 38 per cent respectively,” it said.
It further highlights that ICU services were not available in 14 hospitals, Blood Bank services were not available in 16, Oxygen services were not available in 8, Mortuary services were not available in 15, and Ambulance services were not available in 12 hospitals.