The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) restarted its diagnostic testing scheme, Aapli Chikitsa Yojana, from today, August 1. The program was stopped on December 15, 2024, due to operational issues. It will now resume at 100 civic health facilities, including maternity homes, hospitals, and aapla dawakhanas.
The scheme was first launched in 2019 to provide affordable diagnostic services. It offered 139 tests earlier, but now only 83 tests will be included. Of these, 66 are basic tests and 17 are advanced tests. The earlier list had 101 basic and 38 advanced tests.
The BMC will collect patient information and upload it to the Health Information Management System (HIMS) to generate the results. Reports will be sent to citizens through WhatsApp. The list of tests included in the program is based on recommendations from an expert committee.
The civic body plans to extend the scheme to all civic-run hospitals and dispensaries by August 15. These include facilities from Wards A to E, 30 maternity homes, 16 suburban hospitals, five speciality hospitals, polyclinics, and Dr. RN Cooper Hospital and Hindu Hridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Trauma Care Hospital.
Earlier, the scheme was used by about 4,000 patients daily across more than 400 civic health centres. However, it was stopped after 18 months due to problems faced by Krsnna Diagnostics, the company originally given a four-year contract. A new contractor was not appointed until now.
Lifenity Health Ltd., based in Pune, was selected in April through a fresh tender process. The company offered a price of INR 90 for basic tests, lower than the estimated cost of INR 100. The tests under this scheme will be done through external agencies at the centres where it operates.
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