Minimum standards for clinics planned
Ekatha Ann John | TNN | Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 08:35 IST
TIMES OF INDIA
CHENNAI: As the state awaits a Clinical Establishment Act, which will make licencing of all hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and labs mandatory, the Tamil Nadu medical council (TNMC) is in the process of chalking out minimum standards for them.
The council, which so far limited itself to just initiating action against individual doctors, will soon set up a committee to frame guidelines that will empower them to pull up hospitals too. As part of this, the committee will compile a report which stipulates minimum standards for clinics, nursing homes and hospitals.
“Meeting these standards will be mandatory,” said Dr K Senthil, president of TNMC. “If we receive a complaint about a hospital or a clinic from the public, not meeting these standards could be used against them,” he said. At present, getting a certificate from accreditation agencies, like National Accreditation Board for Hospitals, is an asset but not a necessity to run hospitals in the state.
This is the first time the council will be coming up with its own set of guidelines. Dr Senthil said although the plan has been in the statutory body’s backburner for close to a decade, it was dug up in 2014 in the Madras high court. “A man had lodged a complaint of medical negligence against a corporate hospital in Chennai, which caused his father’s death,” said Senthil. The council set aside the complaint saying it had no power to act against hospitals. When the case reached trial, the Madras high court, in consultation with the Medical Council of India, directed the state council to frame guidelines that would empower them to act against hospitals. Dr Senthil said the new guidelines would only empower the council to initiate action in coordination with the state government.
“We can debar doctors as they are registered with us. Hospitals, we have no power. But we can provide assistance to authorities who have penalising powers,” he said.
The guidelines will be ready by June, said members of the council, which recently held elections after close to two years of in-fighting. The role and responsibilities of the council are, at present, defined and dictated by the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, Tamil Nadu Medical Registration Act, 1914, and Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002.
The guidelines are being framed at a time when the state government is preparing to pass a legislation in the next assembly session that allows patients to file criminal cases against hospitals for failing to display cost of diagnosis, treatment, and tests such as MRIs and other scans.
The legislation, which will allow the state to enforce the Tamil Nadu Private Clinical Establishment Act, 1997, will also apply to state-run hospitals.
Ekatha Ann John | TNN | Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 08:35 IST
TIMES OF INDIA
CHENNAI: As the state awaits a Clinical Establishment Act, which will make licencing of all hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and labs mandatory, the Tamil Nadu medical council (TNMC) is in the process of chalking out minimum standards for them.
The council, which so far limited itself to just initiating action against individual doctors, will soon set up a committee to frame guidelines that will empower them to pull up hospitals too. As part of this, the committee will compile a report which stipulates minimum standards for clinics, nursing homes and hospitals.
“Meeting these standards will be mandatory,” said Dr K Senthil, president of TNMC. “If we receive a complaint about a hospital or a clinic from the public, not meeting these standards could be used against them,” he said. At present, getting a certificate from accreditation agencies, like National Accreditation Board for Hospitals, is an asset but not a necessity to run hospitals in the state.
This is the first time the council will be coming up with its own set of guidelines. Dr Senthil said although the plan has been in the statutory body’s backburner for close to a decade, it was dug up in 2014 in the Madras high court. “A man had lodged a complaint of medical negligence against a corporate hospital in Chennai, which caused his father’s death,” said Senthil. The council set aside the complaint saying it had no power to act against hospitals. When the case reached trial, the Madras high court, in consultation with the Medical Council of India, directed the state council to frame guidelines that would empower them to act against hospitals. Dr Senthil said the new guidelines would only empower the council to initiate action in coordination with the state government.
“We can debar doctors as they are registered with us. Hospitals, we have no power. But we can provide assistance to authorities who have penalising powers,” he said.
The guidelines will be ready by June, said members of the council, which recently held elections after close to two years of in-fighting. The role and responsibilities of the council are, at present, defined and dictated by the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, Tamil Nadu Medical Registration Act, 1914, and Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002.
The guidelines are being framed at a time when the state government is preparing to pass a legislation in the next assembly session that allows patients to file criminal cases against hospitals for failing to display cost of diagnosis, treatment, and tests such as MRIs and other scans.
The legislation, which will allow the state to enforce the Tamil Nadu Private Clinical Establishment Act, 1997, will also apply to state-run hospitals.
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