Delhi govt provides tablets to 260 mohalla clinics to prevent data fudging

To formulate disease-wise policies and prevent doctors from fudging patient visit data, the Delhi government has provided tablets to nearly half of the mohalla clinics in the national capital.

There are 519 mohalla clinics in the city that offer free primary health care services, including 212 different types of tests, to patients. Every day, over 60,000 people are treated in these clinics, according to official figures.

The salaries of the staff, including doctors, employed at mohalla clinics depend on the number of patients visiting the facility, they said.

According to officials, tablets have been given to around 260 mohalla clinics and efforts are on to provide the devices to the remaining clinics.

"There will be three tablets in each clinic and the doctor, nurse and pharmacist will function through them only. It will take us another one month to activate these tablets in the remaining clinics," said an official.

Explaining the reason behind the efforts to digitise mohalla clinics, the official said the tablets will help in reducing the time taken by each person to do their work.

"All the processes will now be digital, and this data can be analysed and disease-wise policies can be formulated. We will also know the exact number of patients who visit the clinic as all the data will be available digitally," he said.

"There will be no scope of doctors fudging the number of patients - as they receive their salaries based on the number of patients that visit the clinic," he added.

Some other smaller advantages of the tablet is that the scope of doctors and nurses writing incorrect test results can be decreased, the official said.

The process of providing tablets has been going on for over a year now, the official said, adding that internet facilities are being made available at the clinics that have not received the devices while guidelines for using them have been issued.

A review meeting was held recently, in which Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had asked the department to expedite the process and ensure that the facilities are functional within a month, he said.

Earlier this month, Sisodia had said that a mohalla clinic is the very first point of detection for any disease that strikes the city.

After digitisation, the data from here will be used to assess any disease before it affects the people of Delhi. Furthermore, such data will be crucial in the development of health-related policies, he said.

The Delhi government is also in the process of opening 100 more mohalla clinics across the national capital to provide world-class primary healthcare services to all residents, according to officials.