Health Ministry not in a hurry to implement Act

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 4

The Union Health Ministry was not in a hurry to implement the Clinical Establishment Act and it was trying hard to make it acceptable to all stakeholders. This was stated by Dr Tarsem Chand, Joint Secretary at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, here today.

Dr Taresm was speaking at a seminar on various aspects of the Act organised by the Indian Medical Association, Chandigarh. Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ajay Tiwari was the chief guest on the occasion.

The Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, was enacted by the Central Government to provide for the registration and regulation of all clinical establishments in the country with a view to prescribing the minimum standards of facilities and services provided by them.

The Ministry has notified the National Council for Clinical Establishments and the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012, under this Act.

The Act is applicable to all kinds of clinical establishments from the public and private sectors, of all recognised systems of medicine, including single doctor clinics. The only exception will be establishments run by the Armed forces.

The Joint Secretary said that the National Council formed for the purpose was still collecting data and objections from all stakeholders in this regard. It is not being implemented immediately. All states and union territories can make amendments according to local needs and forward them to the National Council, he said.

Dr Neeraj Nagpal, ex-president of the IMA, Chandigarh, raising concern of the medical fraternity over the Act said that the government had no money to provide proper health services to the general public and by enacting the Clinical Establishment Act, it was trying put onus on the private sector to provide health services.

He said that the Act was full of such guidleines which were not only confusing but impracticable also. There were many compulsions for the small nursing homes where no guidelines had been issued even for bigger hospitals in the government sector.

Under Clinical Establishment Act at least 26 licences are required to be procured for setting up a clinic, he said. And it takes years to get these licenses under the current adminstrtive system in country, he added. Ironically many of these licences were not mandatory for the government hospitals, he said.

Dr Nagpal said under the Act it was mandatory for a doctor to attend to a patient when in emergency he/she reached his doorstep. How a medical expert in dermatology or dentistry will be able to treat a patient of cardiac arrest, he said. And the Act was silent on such situations, said the doctor.

Further, there was no mechanism as to who was going to foot the bill for such patients when he was not in a condition to bear the expenditure, said Dr Nagpal.

The doctors at the seminar were of the view that there should be no discrimination in statutory licences needed to run a clinical establishment whether it was in the government sector, private allopathy centre or the Ayush centre of similar size.

They said that small and medium healthcare establishments like nursing homes up to 20 beds should be given relaxation in minimum standards as is given to small and medium-scale industries under a separate Act. Private hospitals which have not received any subsidy or support from the government in any form cannot be forced to sell their services at a particular rate. Emergency treatment needs to be paid for and mechanism of this payment to clinical establishments needs to be evolved.

The doctors demanded that a clause to invite objections from public before setting up a clinical establishment should be removed.