The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has released a draft application form for provisional registration of clinical institutions in India under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2007, seeking suggestions from the stake holders before finalising the format.

The format, developed by the National Council of Standards under the health ministry, covers the wide spectrum of clinical establishments including clinics, healthcare centres, hospitals, diagnostic centres such as laboratories, radiological investigations, neuro-electro physiological techniques, blood, organ and tissue banks and sanatoriums. The format also seeks the clinical establishment of various systems of medicines including Allopathy, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Siddha and Unani to submit the details on the infrastructure, facilities offered and human resources among other aspects.

"The National Council of Standards is in the process of developing various formats for the registration of clinical establishments. These formats are being developed in a participatory manner by members of the Council. The Council is keen on receiving suggestions from the concerned stakeholders before finalizing the same," explained the ministry officials. The stake holders can submit their suggestions and comments on the format before December 31, 2008.

As per the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2007 clinical establishment would include hospitals, maternity home, nursing home, dispensary, clinics etc and similar facilities with beds that offer diagnosis, treatment or care for illness or injury or pregnancy in any recognised system of medicine (Allopathy, Yoga, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Siddha and Unani).

Any laboratory, which has either established as independent entity or part of an establishment, offering pathological, bacteriological, genetic, radiological, chemical, biological and other diagnostic or investigative services also comes under the purview of the bill. Furthermore, the establishment can be owned by the government or a particular department of the government, a public or private trust, a corporation, a local authority and a single doctor establishment, according to the draft bill.

The format includes detailed queries on the services offered by naturopathy and yoga centres. The naturopathy centres should have to specify whether the establishment offers water therapy, air therapy, fire therapy, space therapy, massage therapy etc, even as the yoga centres should submit details on preventive health care services, disease oriented Yoga Therapy services, promotion of Health services in Yoga and the meditation services offered by the institute.

As reported, the committee assigned to prepare the bill has recently decided to expand the purview of the bill to the entire spectrum of healthcare establishments including the public healthcare centres, diagnostic centres, R&D facilities taking up clinical trials on patients and all systems of medicine for mandatory registration. The format released by the council covers almost all the areas mentioned in the bill, which is aimed to provide among others minimum standards for facilities and services with a view to standardizing health care services and for achieving improvement of public health.