The State Government has failed to regulate private clinical establishments (CEs) while allowing them to violate various norms, a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, tabled in the State Assembly on Tuesday, said. The CAG report on 'General and Social Sector for the year ended March 2014' said the Government has failed to provide minimum standards for infrastructure, services and quality for health institutions. The audit while examining 40 sampled CEs found that 34 CEs were functional as of March 2014. Out of 34 CEs, while 27 were operating with valid licences, seven CEs were operating despite expiry of their licences between September 2008 and August 2013.
Further out of these seven CEs, three, all in Cuttack, had not complied with the objections raised by the DMET and two, one in Cuttack and another at Brahmapur, had not applied for renewal. Informing that a total of 1,511 CEs had been registered in the State by August 2014, it said an audit conducted during September to December 2013 and June to July 2014 found that registration/licence of 976 CEs expired between May 1996 and November 2013 and the same were not renewed as of August 2014. In four districts, registration of 377 (54 percent), out of 700 private CEs, expired between September 1996 and November 2013, it said. Out of 34 tests checked functional private CEs, registration of nine CEs expired 15 to 83 months ago. It observed that no inspection was carried out by the DMET for detection of health institutions operating without valid licence and registration.
The CAG said though accreditation is a parameter to assess the quality of service rendered by CEs, DMET had no information on accreditation status of CEs of the state. While the government had allotted 125.262 acre during 1981-2009 to 39 promoters at concessional rates for setting up of nursing homes/ private hospitals, several promoters utilised the allotted land for residential and commercial purposes, it said. The Bhubaneswar Development Authority has approved their building plan for nursing home and maternity home. "The Government had not taken any steps for cancellation of these allotments despite the terms of allotment of approved building plan being violated. The objective of allotment was, thus, defeated," said the report.