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Parliamentary panel reviewing new AHP Bill set to seek stakeholders’ suggestions
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Arun Sreenivasan, New Delhi
January 22 , 2019
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The parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare,
mandated to review the Allied and Healthcare Professions (AHP) Bill of
2018, has started examining its salient features and is planning to
invite comments and suggestions from professional associations and
industry stakeholders, it is learnt. The new bill, referred to the House
panel in December, is aimed at regulating education, training and
services of healthcare professionals other than doctors.
The
committee is expected to submit its report by February end. The new bill
provides for setting up of an Allied and Healthcare Council of India
and corresponding state-level councils which will play the role of a
standard-setter and facilitator for these professions. The Council will
regulate 15 major professional categories including 53 professions in
allied and healthcare streams such as x-ray technicians, radiologists,
nutritionists and physiotherapists.
The House panel is expected
to invite stakeholders’ suggestions in the coming days. Various
professional associations are betting big on the legislation that would
open up global opportunities for its members. According to the
government, it will benefit an estimated 900,000 allied and
healthcare-related professionals and thousands of other professionals
joining the workforce every year.
“The new bill, once comes into
force, will help promote much-needed competence and standardisation in
the sector,” says Kaptan Singh Sehrawat of Joint Forum of Medical
Technologists of India.
This is not the first time the Central
government is introducing a bill to regulate paramedical professions. In
2015, an earlier version, titled Allied and Healthcare Professionals
Central Council Bill, was put in public domain and the ministry had
sought suggestions from stakeholders.
“There has been a gap in
the allied and healthcare space thanks to the absence of a proper
regulatory framework. The redrafted bill incorporated many of the
suggestions we had put forward. We had sought categorisation of
laboratory staff according to their qualification. Moreover, the minimum
number of technicians in each cadre has to be redefined depending on
the grade of the facility,” Jithu G, chairman of Clinical Laboratory
Professionals Association (CLPA) told Pharmabiz.
The CLPA backs a
laboratory professional and lab registration system where each clinical
laboratory should be registered in the name of a Medical Laboratory
Technologist (MLT) person whose minimum qualification should be not less
than three- or four-year Regular BSc MLT/ BMLT from
government-recognised institution or two-year diploma certificate in
MLT.
The bill in its present form empowers the central and state
governments to make rules and issue directions to the councils or to
amend the schedule. The state councils will undertake recognition of
allied and healthcare institutions. An offences and penalties clause has
been included to check malpractices.
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