Notwithstanding the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Uttarakhand chapter being doggedly insistent on amending the Clinical Establishment Act, the private hospitals and clinics are making a beeline for registration under the same.
In Dehradun district alone, 307 hospitals and clinics have so far registered themelves under the Clinical Establishment Act. The state health department issues provisional registrations to the clinical establishments when they apply for registrations. A process of permanent registration is initiated after the end of one year of provisional registration. Out of 307 registrations in Dehradun, 278 are provisional while just 29 clinics have permanent registration. Interestingly, after the order of Uttarakhand High Court and tough stance taken by the authorities, the hospitals dealing in alternate form of medicine like Ayurveda, Homeopathy and physiotherapy are also coming forward for registration. In Dehradun for example, 44 Ayurveda, two homeopathy and three physiotherapy hospitals have so far been registered under the act.
The chief medical officer ( CMO) Dehradun, Dr S K Agarwal said that all the clinical establishments should register themselves as per the provisions of the act till end of this month. He accepted that the number of registrations for clinical establishment act have increased in recent times.
The Uttarakhand HC had recently directed the state government to close such clinics and hospitals which are not registered under the act.
The Act
After passage of the clinical establishment act in the Uttarakhand Assembly in 2013, the act was enforced with an objective to monitor clinical establishments in 2016. Under the provisions of the act, it is compulsory for all the clinical establishments like doctor’s clinic, private hospitals, diagnostic centres, homeopathic doctors and Ayush doctors to get them registered with the state council. The act seeks to regulate all clinical establishments with a view to prescribing the minimum standards of facilities and services provided by them. Under the act, the clinical establishments should keep a record of the all the patients and disclose and display the type of services they give. These establishments would be bound to disclose the number and qualification of the staffers they are employing and display the rate lists clearly.