Rules to regulate hospitals, clinics coming soon
PATNA: Bihar is finally going to enforce Clinical Establishment (Regularisation and Registration) Act, 2010, the law which will regulate not only private and government hospitals but also single-doctor clinics and diagnostic centres.
The state government could not frame rules of the Act that was adopted in 2010. However, the Patna high court recently fixed January 31 as the deadline to do the same.
"The health department has done its bit. It is now with the competent authority for the final stamp," principal secretary (health) Deepak Kumar told TOI recently. Asked why the health department couldn't enforce the rules so far, he said one among many reasons was the opposition to the move by a section of doctors. A committee was formed to look into their grievances. "We have adopted the central government's Act in toto. Their grievances could not be heeded beyond the limitations of the central law," he said.
The Act makes it mandatory for the state government to form a State Registration Council with which all clinical establishments, be it ayurveda, allopathic or homeopathy, have to get themselves registered. Public health experts say this will be a boon for the state as the government till date doesn't have even a concrete figure as to how many private clinics operate even in the state capital, let alone across the states.
A central government committee of experts in consultation with state council will lay down standard treatment protocol for treatment of a disease. "We frequently hear complaints that patients are harassed by some doctors by prescribing
unnecessary diagnostic tests and medical procedures. The standard treatment protocol will save the patients," senior public health specialist Rajmohan Panda of Public Health Foundation of India told TOI over phone from New Delhi. Scams like uterus removal scam that happened in Bihar last year can also be prevented, he added.
Apart from hospitals and single-doctor clinics, the Act also covers diagnostic establishments. The Act prescribes the minimum standards of facilities and services without compliance with which, a clinical establishment can't be registered. "This will prevent quacks' clinics from mushrooming," said Panda. The Act also asks clinical establishment to stabilize any patient who has been brought to emergency. Experts say, henceforth doctors in an emergency condition can't deny treatment, especially to a poor patient.
"The state already faces scarcity of doctors. The so-called minimum standard will further deter private clinics from coming up," said state IMA president Dr Rajiv Ranjan Prasad. He added, "We have many such rules but are they implemented in letter and spirit? For example, TB is a notifiable disease. But many cases are not informed to district TB authorities. Similar might be the fate of this authority."
However, a member of governing body of Bihar Medical Council, Dr Sunil Kumar Singh, said after registration of all establishments, the government would be able to know where and how many health facilities exist and where are they needed to be created.
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