West Bengal Assembly passes bill to make District CMOHs licensing authority

Kolkata: The West Bengal Assembly has passed an amendment bill that seeks to make the chief medical officer of health (CMOH) of a health district the licensing as well as registration authorities within the officer's jurisdiction in respect of clinical establishments.

Till now, CMOHs of only the revenue districts were the licensing and registration authorities of clinical establishments. Now, such officers in health districts too will be able to issue licenses, according to the bill. 

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The West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) (Amendment) Bill, 2022, presented by Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya, was passed by voice vote.

Minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya said the amendment would take healthcare to the grassroots in 19 districts, reports TOI. 

"If there is corruption, there will be a probe by the regulatory commission. The commission has already issued the closure of 50 hospitals and forfeited Rs 5 crore," Bhattacharya said.

Opposition BJP members staged a walkout protesting against the move to amend the Act concerned, alleging that this will help lead to scams as several private clinical establishments without the requisite infrastructure would get the license. 

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that a recent RTI petition has revealed that more than 100 private medical establishments in Ranchi are functioning sans the health department's mandatory license under the Jharkhand State Clinical Establishments (Rules and Regulations) of 2013. The licenses under the Clinical Establishment Act are ought to be renewed by the owners of private medical establishments each year.

However, The RTI, filed by city resident Jyoti Sharma, has revealed that over 40 medical establishments, which are primarily clinics and labs, which are operating without the mandatory license for more than four months. 

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