Poor facilities lead to clinic, lab closure

MYSORE: District health authorities shut down two private medical establishments for lack of infrastructure and qualified staff on Saturday.
Latha nursing home on Mahadevapura road and its bio-tech lab were closed as they were ill-equipped. The clinic did not have a labour ward, qualified paramedical staff nor was it hygienic. The lab owner did not have the necessary qualification to run a lab.
District health officer B S Nagaraj Rao, who is member secretary of Karnataka private medical establishment authority, said they are bring all Karnataka private medical establishments (KPME) in the district under government control as per the KPME Act 2007. "We had directed all the establishments to register with the authority before the deadline but only 70 percent of them have come forward," he said.
The authority distributed 1,750 applications but only 1,400 medical establishment owners have submitted documents for verification. Following this the authority conducted an inspection and issued a no objection certificate to nearly 200 of them, the authority nodal officer Somashekar claimed.
Each establishment should have proper infrastructure, maintain hygiene, appoint qualified practitioners and paramedical staff, have a proper system to dispose of solid and liquid wastes, display the price list etc as per the new Act.
But during an inspection, authority members found that these two establishments did not have proper infrastructure. The issue was discussed with the deputy commissioner, who is also chairman of KPMEA, and it was decided to close the establishments, Somashekar claimed.
Meanwhile, the DHO warned of strict action against all medical establishments if they failed to adhere to the guidelines. He said they would continue similar raids in the coming days.