Ramadoss

Chennai, March 28: Pushing ahead with his plan to clean up and streamline the health services sector, Anbumani Ramadoss today said all private hospitals and diagnostic centres in the country would have to register with the government in the next two years.

?Once the registration work is completed, the process of accreditation will commence, initially as an option,? the Union health minister told reporters.

Ramadoss said work to get the registration process off the ground was already underway. Once consultation with the Indian Medical Association is over, implementation would begin in full swing, he said.

Although 82 per cent hospitals and diagnostic centres were in the private sector, only some states like Tamil Nadu, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra had laws requiring registration, he said. But even in these states, they ?have not been fully implemented?.

In Bengal, all hospitals and diagnostic centres are required to first give a declaration that they will abide by the state?s Clinical Establishment Act, after which there is an inspection by the government. Besides, they have to pay trade tax and get an all clear from police.

But Delhi follows a different set of rules. While nursing homes and hospitals have to get a licence, diagnostic centres are not required to take permission from health authorities.

Two weeks ago, Ramadoss had proposed that one-time registration for doctors and pathological labs should be scrapped and a system of re-registration every five years introduced to ensure ?quality control? in the health sector.

Ramadoss said some 25 hospitals each in the allopathic and indigenous systems of medicine were accredited as they came under the health tourism sector.

On reports of the presence of heavy metals in ayurvedic drugs, he said the government was still awaiting the report of a committee.

?We have enforced the good manufacturing practices (GMP) for indigenous drug producers and are being stringent. But most manufacturers are in the small-scale sector and so we need to be a little considerate.?

Allaying fears that drug prices would rise with the passing of the amended patents? act, Ramadoss said Parliament had been assured that 95-97 per cent of existing drugs were not on the patents? list. ?There will be no immediate rise in drug prices,? he said.