Delhi plans to put 85 existing tuberculosis diagnostic machines to work testing for hepatitis B and C. The city government has requested 2,500 Truenat testing chips for each infection for the current financial year.
It’s a plan built around equipment taxpayers have already bought. No new hardware. No new facilities. Just more use from machines already in the system.
The Plan
The 85 molecular diagnostic machines operate under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP). Under the proposal, the government would initially earmark one Truenat platform per district for viral-load testing of patients who test positive for hepatitis B and C, subject to approval from the NTEP State Programme Officer.
Truenat platforms are portable molecular diagnostic machines. They use polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based tests to detect infections, including tuberculosis, by identifying genetic material in patient samples. Viral-load tests measure the amount of virus in a patient’s blood and help assess the infection.
An official statement issued Friday said the initiative aims to improve access to testing and strengthen coordination between national health programmes.
Who Pays for the Chips
The government submitted a demand for 2,500 Truenat chips each for hepatitis B and hepatitis C to the Central Programme Division for 2026-27. The central unit of the National Viral Hepatitis Control Programme indicated that the Centre would procure the chips centrally, according to the statement.
That detail matters. The consumables—the recurring cost of any testing programme—would come through central procurement rather than Delhi’s own budget. Delhi supplies the machines and workforce; the Centre supplies the chips.
Squeezing More From Existing Assets
The government also plans to run existing machines beyond regular working hours and on holidays, depending on workload and operational requirements. The statement said technicians will receive training and incentives to conduct the tests.
Longer hours offer a straightforward way to raise output without buying anything new. The incentive structure links added work to extra compensation, rather than assuming staff will simply take it on.
The broader screening plan also envisages portable X-ray facilities, with a special focus on women, particularly pregnant women, to help identify health conditions that require further investigation.
Government Response
Health Minister Pankaj Kumar Singh said the government was focused on strengthening diagnostic services by making optimal use of existing health-care infrastructure and improving access to timely hepatitis B and C testing.
The statement included a caveat. The proposed district-level arrangement will proceed only after the required concurrence and operational planning. Nothing is final. The NTEP State Programme Officer still has to sign off, and the central chip supply has been indicated, not delivered.
Why This Matters:
Delhi’s proposal tests a question health budgets eventually face: can existing capacity do more before anyone pays for new capacity? Using 85 machines already paid for, staffed and installed costs less than building a separate hepatitis testing network from scratch. The risks are practical. Machines that run TB tests all day may have little idle time, and longer hours depend on technicians who need training and pay. The plan also relies on central procurement for the chips, so delays upstream could stall the programme downstream. Because the arrangement still needs the State Programme Officer’s concurrence, it’s worth watching whether the district-by-district rollout reaches patients, and what recurring cost it carries.
- delhi
- hepatitis b
- hepatitis c
- truenat
- molecular testing
- pankaj kumar singh