Eyeing growing wellness tourism which has been identified as one of the niche tourism products in the country, the Union Ministry of Ayush has issued ‘Accreditation Standards for Ayurveda Hospitals’ to ensure safe and high quality care to the patients.
The aim is to reap benefits of ayurveda through health tourism, said an official from the Ayush Ministry. He said the standards have been prepared with the help of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care and Quality Council of India (QCI) for the ayurveda hospitals to adhere.
The standards are voluntary in nature and it will be on the healthcare organisations to come out with the systems, processes and modes of measuring performance indicators, which can demonstrate compliance to the requirements as specified in the standard.
He said those meeting the standards can seek the certificate from the NABH as a mark of excellence. He explained, Accreditation Programme for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Unani, Siddha and Yoga & Naturopathy) Hospitals, is run in association with AYUSH Ministry.
It consists of two kinds of standards — Accreditation Standards and Structural Standards. Accreditation standards are based on three components — structure, process and outcome. These standards measure the quality and safety aspects of the care delivered to the patients. Structural standards basically deals with infrastructural requirements to help the organisations to deliver quality of care.
Such accreditation instill confidence to the tourists and locals that the Centres are providing services as per global standards and have credentialed staff(qualified and trained) and rights of customers will be protected. Emphasis is given on infection control practices and environment safety aspects, the official added.
The move will also eliminate fly-by-night operators in the ayurveda health sector. “Many health centres claiming to provide ayurveda treatment have mushroomed across the country particularly South. The accreditation tag will give edge to the quality hospitals over the substandard one,” he added.
Intriguingly, so far, just 13 ayurveda hospitals have been accredited with the NABH with most of them from South India, particularly Kerala and Karnataka.
Ayurveda is popular in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and few Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE. However, the largest number of tourists coming to India for Ayurveda is from Germany. The growth rate of tourists flocking for Ayurveda is increasing every year at the rate of around 20-25 per cent, according to an estimate.