The temperature outside is hovering around a pleasant 30° Celsius, but the monsoon humidity makes the heat unbearable. That, however, is no more an issue for 60-year old Mohinder Kaur or 45-year old Amarjit Singh who are among 40 odd patients, patiently waiting for their turn at the Aam Aadmi Clinic (AAC) in Landeke village of Punjab’s Moga.

The newly inaugurated AAC has an air-conditioned waiting room. A water dispenser stands in a corner. A clinical assistant is manning the reception, with a tab in her hand, for online registration of patients while a pharmacist is doling out free generic medicines.

Among others, the AAC has a separate ‘sample collection room’ for free clinical tests, and a clean toilet. That the AAC is a flagship project of the Aam Aadmi Party government is not lost on the visitors as Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s photograph finds a place of pride on the facade outside and behind the receptionist. Behind the doctor’s seat are portraits of Dr BR Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Both Mohinder Kaur, looking for a solution to her knee pain and high diabetes, and Amarjit Singh, whose leg is covered with wounds formed due to pricks of syringes from when he was a drug addict, say that they have ditched their private doctors hoping to get relief, and save some money, at the AAC.

It was on August 15 that Mann announced the opening of 75 such clinics, to mark 75 years of India gaining freedom, across Punjab. Established on the lines of Mohalla Clinics in Delhi, the AACs will provide basic healthcare facilities to people and reduce burden on district hospitals. A day later, another 25 AACs were added.

However, behind the fresh coats of paint and fanfare of the AAC also lies the grim reality showing the poor state of Punjab’s existing health infrastructure.

Less than a kilometer away from the AAC at Landeke, is the old Health and Wellness Centre-cum-sub-centre dispensary of the health department. With no premises of its own, it runs from a dilapidated room leased out by the panchayat. Plaster peeling off its walls and seepage visible, here the staff pays from its own pocket to even get the toilet repaired. There is no drinking water facility either for staff or the patients.

Few steps from the wellness centre, lies a locked “pharmacy”, opened by the previous government to distribute medicines free of cost, and now gathering dust. According to the locals, it did not function even for a year.

Ramanjit Kaur, the community health officer (CHO) and head of the wellness centre is all for the new clinics but asks what about the existing ones. “We handled entire work during Covid — from collecting samples to vaccination. Even now entire field work, including registering pregnant women, immunizing children and doing surveys during disease breakout, is handled by us but look at the conditions we are working in. We paid from our pocket to get the toilet seat repaired. It had become difficult for us to collect samples of pregnant women because the toilet was not functional. There’s no drinking water. There are so many mosquitoes that we get unwell every other day,” says Ramanjit Kaur.

The wellness centre carries out basic check-ups such as haemoglobin, sugar, blood pressure, urine test, etc.

Back at the AAC, opened by renovating the old Sewa Kendra buildings (one-stop multi-service centres which were opened by SAD-BJP government and then closed during the Congress regime led by Capt Amarinder Singh), the picture is not as perfect. The clinics are facing a manpower shortage, already.

Four days after its grand opening, the staff is grappling with initial hiccups, more so because of the huge rush of patients. At Landeke, there are four staffers — a doctor-cum medical officer, a clinical assistant (a qualified ANM nurse), a pharmacist, and a class-IV helper. But, even as the government promised that these clinics will offer 100 tests in 41 packages, there is no lab technician yet to collect samples. The staff is also facing issues in managing entire work online on tabs due to staff shortage, making waiting time for patients longer. And many patients are being referred to Civil Hospital again. Once collected, the test samples are sent to private Krsnna Diagnostic Labs, with which the Punjab government has an agreement in PPP mode.

Dr Simran, medical officer at AAC, Landeke, says: “The ANM is also collecting samples and registering patients online which has made the work slower. We have been assigned three tabs. The doctor also has to upload prescription and patient’s history online. It is time consuming. Serious patients or those who require medicines which are not available with us, are being referred to Civil Hospital. We need more staff”.

On an average, more than 60 patients are visiting the clinic,which opens from 8 am to 2 pm, every day.

At health and wellness centre, apart from a CHO, there are two ANMs and two ASHA workers. Though it managed the entire work even during the pandemic, its wait for a freezer to store injections required in emergencies is still not over.

A man enters the wellness centre with a wounded finger. “There’s a huge rush at the AAC. Can you please provide basic first-aid,” he asks in general. An ASHA worker rushes to get a bandage and painkillers. “Sorry veere (brother), the tetanus injections are over,” she tells the patient, and notes his name in a register. Stench of garbage, lying next to the dispensary room, hangs heavy inside as rickety fans make laboured efforts to circulate air. “It is good to open new clinics but aren’t we serving the department for years? What about us?,” asks the CHO, a contractual worker.

Of 100 AACs, 75 have been started in refurbished Sewa Kendra buildings while for the rest, the existing dispensaries/wellness clinics have been upgraded.

At the AAC in Gholian Khurd village of Moga, where an existing health and wellness centre has been upgraded, except a doctor no other permanent staff has been deployed yet. “We are managing somehow as of now,” says Dr Santosh Sandhu.

The patients at the new clinics, however, are still hopeful. “At least they are near home and will save us time instead of sweating it out in long queues at district hospitals. Pharmacies opened by the previous government are now lying locked and lakhs spent on infrastructure have been wasted. We can only hope that this project doesn’t meet the same fate,” said a patient.

Meanwhile, politics over Mann’s photo at clinics has begun. Congress leader and former deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, while tweeting a picture of the clinic and 108 ambulances that have photos of former CM Parkash Singh Badal on them, tweeted: “What is the difference between Mann and Akali Dal? These are not your private properties. Is it not enough to spend public money on advertisements that you are also putting your photos here also. In your own words: “Only the color of turbans have changed.”

Ajoy Sharma, secretary, health, Punjab, said that 300 more AACs would be opened in coming days. “Also, the existing 500 primary health centres/dispensaries/wellness clinics would be upgraded with facilities at par with AACs.” Sharma further said that as of now, posts of four staffers have been sanctioned for the new clinics. “Since we do not have labs at the clinics, there isn’t a need for lab technicians. Staff will get trained in a few days in multi-tasking. We are recording footfall of 60 to 150 patients each day at new clinics. Earlier most of them visited private clinics.”

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Divya GoyalDivya Goyal is our Punjab correspondent. Follow her on <a href="https:... read more