Private hospitals express apprehensions about KCE Act

Clinical establishments in the State’s private sector have yet again raised apprehensions over the impact that Kerala Clinical Establishments (KCE) Act could have on small and medium hospitals.

With the Kerala High Court fully endorsing the KCE Act and even expressing displeasure over the manner in which it was stalled for years, all hurdles in the way of the implementation of the Act have been removed and the government is now keen to complete the registration of hospitals in both private and public sector.

While the Kerala Private Hospitals’ Association has moved the Supreme Court against the High Court ruling, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which had also been opposing the Act, had last month directed its members that all clinical establishments, other than clinics offering only consultation services, should get registered under the KCE Act at the earliest.

It said that it will continue negotiating with the government about the clauses which it considered would be “detrimental to the medical profession”.

On Monday, IMA again went on record to say that the implementation of the Act can affect small and medium hospitals and that 15-bed hospitals should be exempted from the provisions of the Act.

The Qualified Private Medical Practitioners’ Association (QPMPA), representing over 3,000 doctors and 400 clinics/hospitals in Kerala, too has now issued a statement that its members were facing several “practical challenges” in the implementation of the Act .

QPMPA said that while it will work with the government to ensure that the Act is implemented, several provisions in the Act, pertaining to minimum standards for clinical establishments, such as land area requirements, room size specifications, Fire NOC, paramedical staffing specifications, poses challenges to hospitals with old buildings. It said that small clinics with less than 15 beds will find it tough to meet the set standards for clinical establishments under the Act.

Compliance report

The Kerala State Council for Clinical Establishments, which is the registering and implementing agency under the Act, has been engaged in speeding up the registration process as it has to file the compliance report to the High Court.

“We have been visiting all government and private hospitals across districts to verify that these institutions have secured the registration. No clinical establishment, big or small, can be exempted from the registration process. All processes have been moving smoothly and meanwhile, we have also been having several rounds of discussions with the representatives of IMA, QPMPA and the Small and Medium Hospitals’ Association about their concerns. All these apprehensions are unnecessary and misplaced,” the Secretary of the Council, J.G. Sanilkumar, said.

“The Council published the minimum standards requirement for each category of clinical establishments in 2023 March. These standards were drawn up after several meetings and workshops in which IMA and QPMPA had also participated,” Dr. Sanilkumar added

He said that IMA had sought exemptions for clinics with less than 15 beds. The council and the government had been engaged in discussions over it, when the HC gave its ruling about the KCE Act, along with a set of its own directives that hospitals had to mandatorily follow and which the government had to ensure. The government feels that the exemptions sought for clinics with less than 15 beds have become untenable following the HC verdict.

As on January 1, a total of 13,566 clinical establishments have secured provisional registration, which includes 3,922 government establishments and 9,644 private ones. About 2,818 clinical establishments have secured permanent registration, of which 1,132 are private sector establishments.