Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Clinics threaten rural health services

Amid a staff crunch, doctors working at village dispensaries have been deputed to run the new clinics, affecting emergency services in the rural and semi-urban areas; villagers and doctors say rural healthcare system is on the verge of collapse

Inside the building compound housing a well-established Subsidiary Health Centre at Rupalheri village in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district, a group of village folk Anxiety is writ large on the faces of people at the Subsidiary Health Centre (SHC), the first point of contact for patients in rural areas that caters to 7,000 to 10,000 people, at Rupalheri village in Punjab’s Fatehgarh Sahib district.

The residents of Rupalheri and half a dozen neighbouring villages are aggrieved over the sole doctor at the dispensary being deputed to work about six km away at an Aam Aadmi Clinic (AAC), a flagship health initiative of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

According to villagers and doctors in the State, the rural healthcare system is on the verge of collapse after AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann opened 400 AACs on January 27. With the clinics offering around 100 lab tests and medicines free of cost, the AAP leaders had termed it the fulfilment of the party’s election promise to provide top-notch healthcare facilities to the common man. Last year, in the first phase of the project, the government had opened 100 AACs at Seva Kendra buildings.

However, with the new AACs functioning from buildings housing Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and doctors being roped in from SHCs and the Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS), emergency services in rural and semi-urban areas have been severely hit.

‘The AAP government is hell-bent on dismantling the rural healthcare system, says Karamjeet Singh, a 67-year-old retired government employee in the village. He says their local dispensary has been catering to six-seven villages since the 1970s. Now, the doctor has been deputed to work at the AAC in Nandpur village, over five km away.

“I am not against these clinics, but shifting doctors is unacceptable. If the staff from existing dispensaries are going to be shifted, then what’s the point of opening new clinics? It’s a betrayal of the trust of those who voted for AAP. In fact, the facilities provided at AACs should be provided at village dispensaries itself,” Mr. Karamjeet says.

“The government is playing with the health of villagers,” says Mahender Singh, a farmer at Rupalheri village.