Govt comes out with draft bill to regulate path labs, clinics in city
New Delhi
The Delhi government on Saturday released the draft Delhi Health Bill, 2019, which aims to regulate all healthcare facilities in the city including hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, and clinics that perform laser procedures. The bill is open to comments from the public for 30 days.
The bill excludes small clinics that only prescribe and provide medicines.
Once the bill comes to force, a state council will set minimum standards for all categories of healthcare facilities and provide registration. The body will also have assessors, who will inspect these facilities periodically to see whether the minimum standards are maintained.
“This is largely a rendition of the model clinical establishment act of the central government. However, some adjustments were made according to Delhi’s needs. After the public consultation, it will go to the cabinet for approval of any revisions and then get introduced in the Assembly,” said Sanjeev Khirwar, secretary, Delhi health department.
Currently, there were no health department regulations for pathology labs, dental, eye, or skin clinics. Only hospitals and nursing homes are supposed to be registered under the Delhi Nursing Home Act, 1953, which will now be repealed by the new bill.
This gap in regulations was noticed by the Delhi High Court, which sent a notice to the government asking it to close all illegal pathology labs. A survey conducted after the court notice found out that there were 875 pathology clinics operating in the capital.
“This is a very good step. This will keep a check on the pathology labs that were operating in a shady way; it will define standards for storing and transporting samples, who signs the tests and whether a pathologist can work in multiple labs,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, secretary of Delhi Medical Council, a statutory body that monitors the conduct of doctors practicing modern medicine.
“There will be a dedicated team to properly register clinical establishment and the data needs to be put out in the public domain, so there will be transparency,” Tyagi added.
The Delhi Health Bill also differs from the Central act and makes declaring any commission or incentive taken for referring a patient to another facility mandatory within 24 hours.
“Delhi’s health bill makes it mandatory to declare any commission taken so that the patient is aware. If they do not, the proposed act also states that they have to provide to the authorities all their records for inspection and the council will come to know. This comes nearly nine years after the Central act and has improved upon many of the aspects in it,” said a senior government official.
The Clinical Establishment Act was notified in 2010, but so far only 11 states and union territories have adopted it.
The Delhi act also includes some provisions recommended by a committee for capping profits in private hospitals. For example, medical facilities will have to clearly display the services provided and the prices for it for patients to make informed choices and that they will not compel patients to purchase medicines or medical devices from a particular pharmacist or supplier.
Other commercial aspects, such as regulating the percentage of profits and concessions to be given in case a person dies in the hospital emergency, have however not been included.
“Some reasonable restrictions in case of public health emergency etc can be included. But no act can regulate how much hospitals can charge patients; the pricing will depend on the kind of services provided by the hospital and patients can choose accordingly,” said advocate Ashok Agarwal, who has been working to help poor patients avail free treatment at hospitals built on concessional land.
The Delhi health act also brings under the it the mandate of the courts that the hospitals that were given land at concessional rates by the government have to mandatorily provide free treatment to a certain percentage of poor patients.
It also says that hospitals have to “cooperate and provide reasonable assistance” during public health emergency and medical aid essential for victims of acid ataack and natural or man-made calamities.
Apart from cancellation of registration, the healthcare establishments can now also be fined up to Rs 5 lakh for first offence and ten lakhs for repeat offence under the act.