Health ministry to hold brainstorming sessions with all central government hospitals

The health ministry is planning to hold brainstorming sessions with all central government hospitals to try and strengthen the country’s public healthcare facilities. The first meeting will be held with government-run hospitals based in the national capital, including RML, AIIMS, Safdarjung and Lady Harding.

Unlike in private hospitals, where the cost of treatment can be expensive, government-run ones offer medical and diagnostic services for free.

The meeting, likely to be chaired by health minister Mansukh Mandaviya, will aim to find ways to upgrade the public health services and solve employee-related issues.

“The ministry is planning chintan shivar of its central government hospitals located in New Delhi to bring a democratic system in process where open discussions can take place and device various means to strengthen the healthcare facility at these government hospitals. This will be the first such meeting with the hospital representatives to discuss matters related to hospital functioning and employee grievances — what can be done to improve those issues,” said an official aware of the matter.

Central government hospitals in Delhi are the backbone of the country’s public sector healthcare system with half of the patients coming from other states.

According to official data, AIIMS, during 2021–22, attended to about 2.5 million outpatients and 200,000 inpatients and performed 144,000 surgical procedures. Similarly, RML every year provides services to about 1.8 million OPD patients, admits about 67,000 patients and provides emergency treatment to 275,000 patients.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson did not elicit a response.

This year, the government raised the budgets of several government hospitals. LiveMint