Rampant bribery is corroding to the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act in Bokaro which was endorsed to check the illegal growth of Nursing Homes, Clinics, Pathological labs including other clinical establishments in Jharkhand, said IMA Chas Chaper president.”Blackmailing and demand of bribe is rampant in Bokaro to get registered under Clinical Establishments”, alleged Dr NK Choudhary president of Indian Medical Association Chas.
Bravely they threaten the doctors, clinic staffs as well nursing home’s owners. If they will not pay their establishment would gone for permanently closer,” said Choudhary adding, “besides few district health department officials some outsiders are also involved in this game.” Notably, there are more than 500 clinical establishments across the Bokaro and only 67 are getting registered under this act by till date.
According to the norms each and every clinical establishment should get provisional registration number within 14 days from the date it applied to the District Registration Authority, said Choudhary. District Registration Authority is a committee headed by DC, Civil Surgeon, IMA’s authorized person, one AYUSH person and president of Zila Parishad, he said. And if the establishment fulfills the norms that will get permanent registration number within two months otherwise their registration would be cancelled, he said
But, blackmail in on rise on the name of registration and Civil Surgeon is well known to it. We have already written a letter to the Deputy Commissioner Bokaro Uma Shankar Singh who is also the head in District Registration Authority, Choudhary said. Some of the middlemen and officials (district health) are collecting between Rs 40,000 to 1 lakhs form each establishment tom provide provisional registration numbers. The amount depends upon the size and frequency of patients comes in that particular establishment, said a nursing home owner on anonymity.
He admitted that he had given Rs 40,000 to get registered his establishment to one very close to the Civil Surgeon Bokaro.There are many but all of them are keeping mum; do not want to expose their names in a bid to eliminate the corruption, he said.
Its worth mentioning that the Central Government has endorsed the act in the country with a view to prescribing the minimum standards of facilities and services provided by them. The Act is applicable to all kinds of clinical establishments from the public and private sectors, of all recognized systems of medicine including single doctor clinics. The only exception will be establishments run by the Armed forces, said a doctor of IMA Chas.