80% free services for Delhi residents: Govt

NEW DELHI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday announced that 80% of free services at the Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI) — the only government-run cancer hospital — will be reserved for people from the state. At present, only 40% of the people getting treated at the hospital are Delhi residents, hospital data shows.

“Our OPD are full and there are long queues. This is because there is a huge shortage of cancer treatment facilities in Delhi, plus we get patients from other states. So the CM asked us to develop a policy to ensure that Delhi residents get preference,” Dr RK Grover, director of DSCI, said. The proposal will be developed by the governing council of the autonomous hospital.

“We are looking if some beds should be reserved for patients from Delhi or if patients from other states be charged a nominal amount for admission, tests and medicines,” Dr Grover said.

During his visit to inaugurate a 24-bed semi-private ward at DSCI, Kejriwal also allotted an adjoining 6.5 acre land to the hospital for expansion

In a similar move, the Delhi government had, in July-end, asked Guru Teg Bahadur hospital — which shares the campus with DSCI and is the biggest state government hospital in the trans-yamuna region — to submit a proposal to disincentivise patients from neighbouring states from visiting the hospital.

“The cost was, of course, a concern but the main problem was that if the Delhi government is spending so much on healthcare and patients from Delhi are not benefitting from it, something needs to be done,” said Dr Kirti Bhushan, Delhi’s director general of health services.