National Council for Clinical Establishments – Updated News
National Council for Clinical Establishments met recently and held discussions related to implementation of CEA and Minimum Standards.
Meeting was held to review the work done by the National Council so far, status of implementation of the
Act by the States/UTs and defining further Roadmap and consideration/decisions of specific agenda points.
Some of the key highlights of the meeting are captured below :
Hospitals
Inclusion of provision of mini oxygen plant/PSA plant and norms of oxygen availability as part of the minimum standards for hospitals for implementation under CE Act.
a. It was agreed that the primary focus should be to ensure availability of Oxygen as per requirement for all the services envisaged to be provided by the hospital. At least one third of total number of beds should be oxygen beds. Atleast 48 hours (preferably 72 hours) of oxygen of the total calculated oxygen requirement of the hospital should be available at any given time, as backup.
b. Oxygen requirement may be calculated as per the ME Division norms of oxygen cylinders based on Oxygen/ICU beds – NRBM/NIV/HFNC/Ventilator Bed capacity in the hospital for management of COVID-19, as mentioned in DO letter dated 21-6-2021 as at Annexure 1 c. Regarding the “establishment of Mini Oxygen Plants in hospitals and Clinical Establishments having more than 50 beds”, following action points were recommended:
i. Every new clinical establishment/hospital having more than 50 beds may be mandated to install Mini-Oxygen/PSA plants of appropriate capacity and specifications for their registration under Clinical Establishments Act, 2010.
ii. For the existing hospitals having more than 50 beds, a time period of 6 months (desirable) and 1 year (mandatory) may be given for compliance to the condition of installation of MiniOxygen/PSA plant.
iii. Accordingly it is recommended that this requirement may be included in the minimum standards for Hospitals and a notification in this regard may be considered to be issued by the MoHFW, as amendment to the Clinical Establishments (Central Govt ) Rules under the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010.
iv. The same advice as at points 3C (i), (ii) and (iii) above may be disseminated to the States/UT not covered by Clinical Establishments Act 2010 for enforcement under the respective State Clinical establishments Act or Disaster Management Act.
v. All small hospitals i.e 50 beds or less should also build infrastructure and add capacities to meet their oxygen requirements for the services envisaged to be provided by them, as per the type of the hospital.
vi. National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) is carrying out the revision of Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) under NHM, accordingly they may clearly define oxygen requirements for various categories of hospitals ranging from 50 to 500 bedded in the revised IPHS guidelines.
Further NHSRC may define the capacity/specifications of equipment/ MiniOxygen/PSA plants to meet the oxygen requirement along with ensuring sustained Oxygen supply in Government Health facilities under NHM as a part of IPHS. They may consider defining the standards separately for difficult/remote/ inaccessible areas, if deemed necessary
Medical Testing Laboratories
Issues related to minimum standards for Medical Diagnostic Laboratories under the Clinical Establishments Act, 2010 (w.r.t suggestions received in respect of inclusion of PhD genetics and PhD scientists in minimum standards for Medical Diagnostic Laboratories)
The Council members were informed that the amended Gazette Notification in respect of Human resource requirements for Medical Diagnostic Laboratories has already been issued on 14-2-2020, which includes provision of MSc and MSc Phd with specified qualification and experience. They are permitted to conduct the tests, generate and sign test reports as authorized signatory for the specified types of tests of their domain area in the specified category of Laboratory, without recording any opinion or interpretation of the test results.
All such test reports generated must necessarily bear a disclaimer to the effect that the reports are strictly for the use of medical practitioners and are not medical diagnosis as such. The Gazette notification is available in public domain on the website of the Act. The participants endorsed the same.
The National Council approved the draft of Minimum Standards for Collection Centres, as finalized by the subcommittee and circulated with the agenda.
Online Health Portals :
The National Council considered the issue of regulation of online health services aggregator and related service providers under Clinical Establishments Act and their standards etc. It was noted that there is no specific provision for their regulation under the Act
a. The National Council endorsed the following recommendations of the “subcommittee for drafting standards for collection centre”
o Public to be made aware of such illegal online health aggregators
o Need to frame IT / Digital laws/rules to regulate them by the Ministry of Electronics and IT. Ministry of Health and Family may take it up with them and also consult Ministry of Law and Justice in this regard.
o The online Lab service aggregators and service providers should have a registration number and provide information regarding the lab where the samples are being sent for testing.
It was noted that a letter has been written by MoHFW to all States and UTs in this regard; however the respective States/UTs are required to take the necessary steps to regulate them.
It was recommended that all online service providers should have a linkage with the registered clinical establishments. Thus only a registered clinical establishment may be permitted to provide online services. MoHFW may issue necessary instructions to States /UTs in this regard. This may be enforced by the District Registering Authority at the district level and the State Council for clinical establishments at State level.
It was approved that a subcommittee under JS (Padmaja Singh), the Secretary of National Council may further examine the issue of regulation of online health aggregators in detail in consultation with stake holders and Law ministry, for taking appropriate action in the matter.
Patient Rights :
Inclusion of Additional Charter of patients’ rights in minimum standards.
The National Council for Clinical Establishments approved for inclusion of the following additional patient rights, as per NHRC Advisory, in the already approved list of patient rights.
Statutory Compliances
It was recommended to include AERB license as part of statutory requirements in the minimum standards as a pre-requisite for issuance of registration under CE Act, wherever applicable. Further it was approved to include AERB license in list of documents to be uploaded for grant of permanent registration to the clinical establishments, wherever applicable.
Full details of minutes covering list of Patient Rights and various other points discussed during the council meet, can be downloaded from here :
