The Parliament has passed the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2010 seeking to make the registration of all clinical establishments mandatory in the country. But the law will take still more time to get into force across the country as now most of the States have to adopt the same Bill by passing resolutions in the Assemblies.

The Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, will be implemented in the Union Territories and the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim as only these States have passed resolution allowing the Parliament to enact the law, since the health is a State subject. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill earlier.

Though the bill was slated to be introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha last week itself, it had to be kept away due to the stalemate in the Houses. Finally, the health minister presented it late on Tuesday and got it passed by voice vote.

Since the Parliament has no power to legislate on matters relating to State subjects, the States should now pass resolutions in their respective Assemblies to adopt the Bill and to make it applicable in their regions. It is expected that the process would take time especially with doctors organisations still opposing the Bill.

The registration of clinical establishments would help the government to build a database for hospitals, which in turn would assist in formulating the national policies on health. The hospitals and clinics would be categorised according to the facilities available with them and their database along with costs would be put on the websites. This would help patients make a choice for treatment, according to health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"We do not want to impose licence raj on the health sector... we need to go slowly and not take harsh measures which may be problematic," he said. The Bill, covering both the private and the government sector provides for penalties to those contravening the law.