Times of India
01 September 2010
By Sanjeev Shivadekar
Mumbai, India

With the state government planning to introduce accreditation system for health care service providers, it will soon be mandatory for all hospitals, clinics and general practitioners to reveal details of the facilities they have.

"At present, we do not have any system that gives us details like the number of hospitals, clinics and availability of beds in the state. Making it mandatory for the health care service providers to give these details will help the government procure accurate data on medicos and the facilities available in the state," said Suresh Shetty, public health minister.

The Government of India has already introduced the system and the state governments will have to follow it.

The bill on this will be introduced during the winter session of the state legislature, which will begin on December 1, in Nagpur. Shetty made the announcement a day after he attended a day-long conference called by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. The conference of health ministers from all states was held in New Delhi.

Six months ago, at a meeting in his office in Mantralaya, Shetty had proposed to introduce a similar system in the state.

According to Shetty, hospitals and clinics will have to furnish details of the facilities available with them to a committee. "The joint committee will have officials from the administration and representatives of the Medical Council of India. After the committee receives the information, it will grade hospitals and clinics accordingly," Shetty said.

"Once the bill is approved, the committee will be set up at every district to ensure that process is completed without any delay," Shetty added.

Rating Call
Rating of clinics and hospitals will help patients know the quality of hospital and the kind of treatment they provide. "The system will help patients choose which hospital they would like to undergo the treatment at," public health minister Suresh Shetty said.