Government mulls new bill to regulate private hospitals

Thiruvananthapuram: The much-hyped Kerala Clinical Establishment (Regulation and Registration) Bill brought out by the previous UDF government has lapsed. "Though it was listed as bill number 230 during the tenure of the last assembly it got lapsed since it was not presented on the floor of the house," said health minister K K Shylaja. Now the LDF government is planning to bring out a new bill after holding a detailed discussion.

However, former health minister V S Sivakumar said the bill could be reintroduced in the current assembly since it was a listed item. "The bill is already listed and hence if the government wants to introduce it, then it can be brought before the house. I could not present it due to lack of time," said Sivakumar.

There were reports that the bill was not brought before the assembly under the influence of the private hospitals.

"Now the state government is seriously thinking to bring out a bill for standardizing the hospitals, clinical labs, scanning centres, etc,'' said Shylaja.

Meanwhile, the state branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said it opposed the previous bill since many of the clauses in the bill were impossible for small and medium hospitals to implement. "The clauses were supportive for corporate hospitals and it was just supporting corporatization. The hospitals and clinics having a single doctor are already facing closure. In the last ten years about 500 such hospitals have been closed down in the state," said Dr Sreejith N Kumar, former state president of IMA.

The bill envisaged a bevy of licensing system for hospitals and also demanded several facilities like 24-hour service, emergency care and classification of hospitals. The IMA is of the opinion that many of such clauses are not affordable to the small hospitals and it will only lead to escalation of the treatment costs.

Even though Sivakumar claimed that the bill was drafted after having discussions with all the organizations and experts, the IMA leaders said that it was not kept for open discussion.