Under the Clinical Establishment Act, registration of all private practitioners in Maharashtra will be made mandatory<

MAITRI PORECHA Mumbai

Health activists in the city have lauded the State health departments latest move to introduce Clinical Establishment Act in upcoming budget session, a law which will make registration of all private practitioners in Maharashtra mandatory. The bill will be tabled in legislature session commencing from March 15 here.

" It is a welcome step by the state government which will bring the entire sector including hospitals, maternity and nursing homes, dispensaries, clinics, sonography centres, naturopathy as well as ayurvedic centres under the ambit of regularization," said Padma Deosthali, Co- ordinator, Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes ( CEHAT).

In the light of close to thirty percent of dispensaries in slum pockets of Dharavi, Kurla and Malad being bogus, general secretary of Indian Medical Association ( IMA), Mumbai chapter, Dr Rajendra Trivedi said, " A doctor who is a registered ayurvedic or unani practitioner cannot administer allopathic medicines or injections according to Supreme Court directions.

If a stringent regularization law comes into being it will halt such malpractices." According to the draft, a committee headed by the district collector and district health officer can hand over registration certificates to private clinical establishments, which will have to be prominently displayed in the clinic. The registration will have to be renewed every five years.

Upping accountability to state health department, the act makes it mandatory for all clinical establishments to maintain patient records and furnish the same to the district authorities in form of three monthly reports. Further, the act gives state health officials the power to enter and search a clinical establishment and inspect any record, register, document, equipment and articles for irregularities. Any violation to the act may lead to the owner shelling out a penalty ranging between Rs 50,000 to five lakh rupees, the draft bill further says.

This albeit with a halfbaked clause suggesting that inspection will only occur after prior intimation to the owner of the clinical establishment.

Skeptical about the proper implementation of Clinical Establishments Act, Deosthali added, " Maharashtra is one of few states that had some law for regulating the private sector but despite amendment in 2005, it has done nothing to implement even minimum requirements under the law.

The government must commit to implementing the new act." /p>