Clinical Establishments Bill likely in session

Kochi, Mar 26: A Clinical Establishments Bill, laying down the minimum standards for doctors' consulting clinics, is likely to be tabled in the Monsoon session of Parliament, Rear Adm. (Retd.) V K Singh, principal consultant to the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), has said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Kerala Health Tourism 2007 (KHT2007) meet, which concludes here today, Read Adm.

Singh said the Bill was being vetted by the Union Law Ministry.

''At present, a doctor wanting to run a clinic can open it without bothering about maintaining standards. This Bill would lay down the standards for opening such clinics and these minimum standards would have to be followed,'' he added.

He said the NABH was also urging the insurance companies to empanel only accredited hospitals for reimbursing insurance claims.

Rear Adm. Singh said the NABH has also taken up a pilot project for the Madhya Pradesh Government to set minimum standards for rural, community and primary health centres.

Norms were also being drawn up for ambulance services and nursing homes, he added.

Observing that 84 per cent of the private sector hospitals had less than 30 beds, he said it was important to prescribe norms for these nursing homes also.

Referring to NABH standards for Ayurvedic centres, he said experts would start work on the preliminary draft in a month's time and the standards would be formulated by the year-end.

UNI