Delhi faces healthcare facilities crisis, funds crunch: IMPRI seminar told

By A Representative

Participating in a web policy talk conducted by the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), Delhi, speakers have pointed towards lack of healthcare facilities and funds crunch among major difficulties the national capital has been facing following the Covid-19 crisis, which led the Government of India to impose lockdown.

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Sanjeev Jha, even as praising measures taken by the Delhi government has taken like setting up of night shelters for migrant workers, cash transfers, provision of ration and cooked meals, and advance pension, admitted that there was a “paucity of beds and medical supplies in hospitals.”
Dr Rashmi Singh, additional commissioner, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, said that there is a need for adaptability, flexibility, and resilience in institutions, insisting, “Sustained efforts would be needed in ensuring health, sanitation and hygiene”, adding, there is a need to “map” resources against the needs.

Dr BK Sharma, advisor, Department of Planning, Delhi government, raised concerns about the resource crunch, underlining this is happening despite the fact that “the problems and the solutions are known”. informal sector workers were “excluded from records and had not received wages for the past three months.”
The seminar was organised against the backdrop of an IMPRI survey in which interviewing 3,121 households across 50 plus cities of the country from May 7 to May 17, whose overall findings suggest that over 90% of respondents reporting ‘out-of-pocket’ expenditure for financing healthcare and 75% respondents reported becoming unemployed due to the lockdown.