A global body, chaired by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, has suggested scaling up of universal health coverage in India, modelled on the AAP government's flagship 'Mohalla Clinics' project.
In a letter to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Annan has lauded the health reforms in the national capital, notably in providing free primary healthcare services through the mohalla clinics.
"We understand that this initiative is proving very successful and we commend you on this impressive achievement," Annan wrote in the letter dated January 25 in his capacity as the Chair of 'The Elders', an organisation of independent global leaders founded by anti-apartheid icon and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela.
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The letter came with a memorandum containing a set of suggestions to further develop the programme. Implementing these would help extend the health coverage in Delhi and provide important lessons for the other Indian states.
The policy memorandum observed that the root cause of India's relatively poor health coverage was the "chronically low levels" of public financing in the sector, which is among the lowest in Asia.
"Delhi's mohalla clinics may prove to be a good model to scale up Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in India...Many key health stakeholders in India are therefore, very excited about the Mohalla Clinic programme and its potential to become a model for scaling up coverage in other states," it said.
There are 106 such clinics in Delhi and according to a report published in The Lancet journal, close to 1.5 million (15 lakh) patients have visited them in the past year.
The government plans to open 1,000 mohalla clinics by this
year, aiming to decongest the government hospitals and make healthcare accessible to all.
These are part of a three-tier public health roadmap, the other components being polyclinics and hospitals.
Polyclinics will have specialists and will refer only those patients, who require a surgery or hospitalisation, to a multi-speciality hospital.
'The Elders' has called for an independent evaluation of the programme and has underscored the importance of documenting the key lessons from its implementation, treating it as a matter of urgency.
However, computerisation of patients' records, management of services and monitoring of performance have not kept pace with the increase in the services at the mohalla clinics, it observed.
"Therefore, to improve the efficient running of the programme, it is recommended that the government invest in cost-effective information systems which will capture vital patients' data as well as facility-based data.
"The potential benefits of scaling up include improvement of key health outcomes. It also comes with economic and political benefits," the forum said.
It would also strengthen health security in Delhi and protect the citizens against infectious diseases such as TB, HIV, malaria, Ebola, SARS, MERS and new strains of influenza, 'The Elders' noted.
"UHC reforms have consistently been shown to increase the popularity of political leaders who have extended publicly financed healthcare to their people," it said under the section on political benefits.
