Centre decriminalises minor offences for Healthcare facilities, allows appeal against penalties, ETHealthworld
New Delhi: In a bid to ease compliance burden on healthcare businesses, the Union Health Ministry has decriminalised the minor procedural non-compliances and pried room for filing appeals before before imposing penalties.
In pursuance of the Jan Vishwas Act, the ministry amended 35 provisions of the Clinical Establishments Act of 2010, to decriminalise minor procedural non-compliances and strengthen citizen-centric regulatory practices.
Under the amended framework, graded and proportionate penalties have been introduced with the nature and severity of the violation.
Further, a structured adjudication process has been notified including an opportunity of hearing before the imposition of penalties, mechanisms for recovery of penalties, and an appeal framework for aggrieved parties.
The notification implements the recommendations of the high-level committee on regulatory reforms and officials expects the measures to encourage voluntary compliance, reduce unnecessary litigation, while maintaining regulatory oversight over clinical establishments.
“By replacing criminal penalties for procedural lapses with a fair and balanced administrative mechanism, the reforms seek to improve the ease of doing business in the healthcare sector while preserving the highest standards of patient care, safety and accountability,” the Ministry said in a statement.
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