Tamil Nadu Govt Makes Registration Of Hospitals, Clinics Mandatory

CHENNAI, 23 MARCH 2018: The state assembly on Thursday passed a legislation making it mandatory for all clinical establishments in the state – public or private – to register themselves with the government. Besides giving the state statistics on healthcare facilities, it will ensure basic standards and also help the state crackdown on quackery, health minister Dr C Vijayabaskar said.

The amendment to Tamil Nadu Private Clinical Establishments (Regulation) Bill, 1997 mandates all clinical establishments — hospitals, nursing homes, dispensaries, consulting rooms, clinics or polyclinics — to register themselves with the government. While existing hospitals should register themselves within nine months, new establishments should register within six months.

“It will help the government know the number of establishments in the state , the kind of facilities, number of beds, equipment and human resources at each of the facilities. It will also mandate establishments to have basic facilities so we can ensure minimum standard of care. No one without adequate qualification can practice medicine,” he told reporters. Names of clinical establishments will be released on the state website every year in January, he added. Although the state was p,lanning to make it mandatory for hospitals to declare cost of all procedures, it has now been dropped. “We ensure that the state health insurance patients are not overcharged,” Vijayabaskar said.

The rules for the act, that is expected to be notified within a week, will give basic standard facilities required for different health units, state health secretary J Radhakrishnan said. Under the proposed legislation, clinical establishments should implement national and state programmes and furnish periodic reports, maintain records as prescribed for the system of medicine and carry out action to prevent spread of communicable diseases. Hospitals will also not be able to turn down trauma victims without offering first aid. Penalties for violation would not be less than ₹ 5,000, but which may extend to ₹ 50,000, it said. “Repeated violations can lead to closure of the institution,” he said.

The government has created an advisory committee which will hold office for three years. It will advise the government on matters of regulation of clinical establishments. A district committee will ensure that no clinical establishment functions without registration.The Times Of India