New Delhi

Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh on Monday said that the Delhi government will order an enquiry into wrongdoings in hospitals and health centres under the previous AAP government and not a single person involved in corruption would be spared.

Speaking in the Assembly during the discussion on the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India on Performance Audit on ‘Public Health Infrastructure; and Management of Health services’, Singh accused the AAP government of not utilising fully the funds provided by the Centre during Covid.

He read out the Central government auditor CAG’s observation which said, “Under the Emergency Covid Response Plan, GNCTD received total funds of Rs 787.91 crore (Lump sum amount of Rs 24.67 crore, Rs 292.22 crore in the first phase and Rs 471.02 crore in the second phase) from the Government of India. Out of this, GNCTD utilised only Rs 542.84 crore (November 2021).”

“I feel sorry and ashamed to share the misdeeds of the previous government. It is painful to recall how a government indulged in such gross negligence,” he said.

“In the coming days we will introduce a Hospital Information Management System (HIMS) under which a unique patient ID will be allotted to each patient. The system will make treatment easy as all the information will be available online,” he said.

Highlighting shortcomings in the functioning of AAP government’s health department during Covid, procurement of substandard drugs, failure to give care to pregnant women, shortage of staff and underutilisation of dialysis machines, the Health Minister cited several paras from the CAG report during the discussion.

Referring to a Delhi High Court direction, he said that the AAP government was supposed to start radiological diagnosis services from November 2024 but it failed to do so.

“I want to assure the people that our government is committed to complying with the High Court order on a war footing,” he said.

Pointing to lapses highlighted by the CAG report, Singh said the Central Procurement Agency (CPA) got drugs from blacklisted suppliers.

He read out a CAG observation which said, “As per one of the eligibility conditions for supplying medicines to CPA, the bidder should not be currently blacklisted, debarred or de-registered for forgery, mis-representation or supplying ‘Not of Standard Quality (NSQ)’ product(s) by any government/autonomous body/institution, hospital in India. It was, however, observed that the department procured medicines from firms without ensuring that they were not blacklisted/debarred by other institutions in India.”

“The previous government looted money with both hands. They committed a scam even during Covid when the entire world was fighting the pandemic,” he claimed after the House proceedings.

He also assured a perceptible change in the services being offered by the health department within the next 100 days

In one section, the CAG report highlighted the mismanagement in the health department by citing the poor state of affairs at Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya Geeta Colony, a Pediatric Hospital.

The report said, “Proper arrangement was not available for mothers whose neonates were admitted in NICU and they were usually allotted space in the basement area with no basic facilities like seating arrangement, drinking water and toilets.”

Earlier, the BJP legislator from Krishna Nagar Anil Goyal said in the Assembly that the CAG report on the health department’s irregularities should be treated as a “charge sheet” and a probe should be conducted into the allegations by the Anti-Corruption Branch.

BJP legislator from Laxmi Nagar Abhay Kumar Verma also demanded an investigation against the AAP government’s health minister and officials for their deliberate mismanagement that resulted in loss to the exchequer.

He highlighted that during Covid, Delhi had 17th position in terms of vaccine coverage and the death ratio of 1.7 per cent was the third-highest in the country – much above the national average of 1.2 per cent.

BJP’s Greater Kailash legislator Shikha Rai highlighted the denial of free treatment to EWS patients in private hospitals, despite a court order.

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However, former Delhi Minister and AAP legislator Gopal Rai said certain parts of the CAG reports had given credit to the previous government for performing much better than the other state governments in the National Capital Region.

He highlighted the start of “Mohalla Clinic” in Delhi under the AAP as the highlight of the AAP government’s health model and blamed the lack of power to the elected government to make recruitments for staff shortage in the health department.