Immune To Accountability

For eight years, the private healthcare sector has opposed the Clinical Establishments Act. State governments are only succumbing to its interests.

- ​​​​​​Kundan Pandey

WHY, AFTER all, is the medical fraternity afraid of the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act? Back in 2010, when the law, henceforth referred to as CEA, was notified, it was hailed as a model one. The law, which is applicable to all types of health establishments and all streams of medicine, aims to streamline healthcare services across the country, while ensuring private hospitals do not engage in unethical practices. But eight years on, nothing much has changed on the ground. Doctors, especially those associated with private clinics and hospitals, are dictating the terms of CEA to such an extent that states are succumbing to the pressure and dragging their feet over implementing the law, despite a recent reminder by the Centre.

Sample this: in November last year, as the Haryana government was getting ready to enforce CEA, which it had adopted three years ago, it faced a massive opposition from the state chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA). On December 15, outpatient services were suspended at all private hospitals in the state. Succumbing to pressure, the government has announced that hospitals that have under 50 beds will be exempted from the purview of the Act.

Doctors in Uttarakhand too are flexing their muscles to frustrate the state government’s attempt to enforce CEA and are demanding amendments on the lines of the Haryana government.