Govt working on health plan for Delhi: Kejriwal

The Delhi Government is working on an ambitious health plan for the city to boost its medical infrastructure and provide better facilities to public.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made this announcement today at a press conference, stating that details of the plan is being worked out.
Kejriwal, at the same time, also hinted at scrapping a few hospital projects which have been lying in the cold storage for many years despite being granted approvals long back.
"There are many big projects mentioned on papers that have no meaning. The government will scrap them. While the per bed cost in a super speciality hospital is around Rs 80 lakh, PWD has put Rs 1.25 crore as a cost of per bed in an ordinary government hospital.

"Many projects were approved several years back, but not a single brick has been laid till date. Those projects will be shelved," Kejriwal said.
At present there are 39 government hospitals, still the hospital-bed-to-population ratio has remained unchanged at 2.2 per 1,000 population for the last two decades as against the WHO prescribed norm of 5 beds per 1,000 population, which is a major cause of concern.

Apart from that there are 260 allopathic dispensaries and 90 mobile dispensaries which caters to a major chunk of population including the people living in slums.
According to sample registration system (SRS) survey, the infant mortality rate which stood at 36 per 1000 live births has crawled to the present IMR of 28 and is almost three times higher than Kerala's IMR of 11 per 1000 live births.

According to the Delhi Human Development Report 2013, the city has the highest infant mortality rate and the major reason behind that is the inadequate neonatal care in health facilities.
The maternal mortality rate of Delhi as per SRS 2003 was 172 per one lakh live births which came down to 132 in 2009 and as per the Civil registration survey 2012, it stands at 103.
According to the health officials despite institutional deliveries being promoted, almost 20 per cent of deliveries still take place at homes.