Few Meetings, oblivious attitude made suburban UT Chandigarh an easy game for quacks
It 2010, Clinical Establishment Act 2010 came into existence. In 2013, Yes, 8 Years since CEA to have implemented in City. Under which Pvt Healthcare units of Allopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda has to get themselves registered. Till now, there is only provisional registration that is available yet there are only 635 Healthcare Hospitals/clinics that got themselves provisionally registered. In an answer to an RTI, UT Health Department showed their incompetency to find the exact number of Healthcare units so far in the city beautiful.
Mere Rs 200 for a clinic/hosps registration
For registering a Hospital/Clinic establishment, the promoter just have to pay Rs 200/-. Yet, there are many small healthcare units or establishments that did not get themselves registered with the UT health department for a reason that they just do not wish to be under the lens. Though there is no harm in it. Ironically, none of the Pvt establishment or doctor charges lesser than Rs 200 or equal for patient treatment or consultancy.
Well, this is Doctor’s choice. In RTI, minutes of meetings of 25 Sep 2017, UT Director Health Services, Dr. Rakesh Kashyap, was requested by IMA Chandigarh to WAIVE OFF RS 100/- PER DAY PENALTY from the Pvt Healthcare establishments as it will discourage Provisional registration. Hence, this matter of waiving off the penality kept lingering for another three years and no penalty was imposed on these unregistered establishments till date.
8 years, no exact data till date
There always has been something or the other excuse lying with the UT health department for not having exact data/record healthcare units in Chandigarh. Annually there have been merely one or two meetings that department held for CEA.
There are lot many Homeo, Ayurvedic clinics mushroomed in city, but department remain oblivious. In Minutes of Meeting of Jan 11, 2018 it was said that there are 800 clinical establishments in Chandigarh. In recent data, there are only 635 establishments. There is a clear gap that Health dept is certainly not ready to reveal and accept.
The point here is, even IMA too did not benchmark their registrations. There are many doctors of Mohali, Panchkula who are registered with CHANDIGARH IMA and also with MOHALI IMA and PANCHKULA IMA. So, there always has been a mismatch of data.
Playing with the words in RTI
Govt officials has always been a pro in concealing the data and in playing with words, Same happens with this RTI. We seek data asking “Provide list of Hospitals/Clinics/Care Centre that are not yet registered with CEA despite being served with Show Cause notice also provide copies of Show Cause notices”. They answered NIL.
Then we seek details of actions been taken on unregistered establishments, then they answered in list of actions that they had served Show Cause Notices too. In just two pointers, they countered their own given information.
We seek information on providing list of registered establishment with expiry date. Department provided the list but WITHOUT expiry date. Hence, Department is so busy in concealing the real data.
We had word with EX DHS of department on the condition of anonymity, where it was revealed that the department has to work hand in hand with pvt clinics else the many vested interests would get exposed and there would no win win situation.